


Is This What We Deserve?

by lexagriffins



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-16
Updated: 2016-06-17
Packaged: 2018-06-08 19:17:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 38,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6870133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lexagriffins/pseuds/lexagriffins
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>coffee shop au</p><p>Clarke works at a coffee shop where Lexa, a high power lawyer, is a regular customer. They don't exactly get off to the best start but maybe once they get to know each other things will change</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

It was hot. Too hot. Clarke couldn’t believe how hot it was considering it was only June, and yet she was sweating from every pore of her body.

“Griffins!” came a voice from behind her, “Table 13 is still waiting on their drinks.”

Clarke rolled her eyes before turning around and plastering a smile on her face. “Sorry Jaha, was just trying to cool myself off before I faint,” she replied, trying, but not quite succeeding, in keeping the hostility out of her voice.

“Don’t be so dramatic Griffin, it’s not that hot.” Clarke scowled darkly as she watched her boss walk back to his seat near the back of the café where there was a lovely breeze coming from the air conditioning. The man sat down, took a sip from his iced coffee, and looked pointedly back at Clarke who clenched her fists and debated whether to walk over to her boss and punch the smug look off his face. However, she decided it was safer to force a fake smile and make her way back to the barista. The blonde served table 13 with faux cheeriness and continued with her job for another few hours without stopping, in fear she would be called out again.

She wouldn’t say she hated her job; she just had no real passion for it. How could you have passion for your work when that work is serving moody and rude members of the public for hours on end? Clarke worked at a quiet coffee shop near the outskirts of town. The coffee shop was called “Arcadia” which, according to Jaha who was her boss and owner of the café, meant “peaceful wilderness”. Clarke wasn’t sure if this was accurate, but supposed it sort of was a fitting name for her place of work. All kinds of people came in Arcadia, but it was mostly more laid back people who came in to do some college work or to read a book or have a relaxed catch up with a friend. Rowdy and loud groups of people were never present in the café and so in many ways, it really was a peaceful wilderness!

“Hey princess,” came a whisper in Clarke’s ear.

“Oh shit!” the blonde exclaimed, almost dropping her stack of dirty plates and mugs. She turned round and saw her best friend smiling toothily at her, “Fuck sake Raven, you can’t scare me like that while I’m at work!”

Raven Reyes had been one of Clarke’s best friends for a few years now after they met at a freshman college during their first year at Ton District College. They hadn’t really got off to a great start considering they were unintentionally both dating the same boy! But now, years later, they were firm friends and any bad feelings they may have had towards one another were way in the past.

“Sorry Griff, didn’t mean to scare ya,” Raven said as she pouted jokingly.

“Oh please, yes you did!” Clarke replied, smiling slightly and hitting her friend on the arm. “What you doing here anyway?”

“Finished early today, so thought I’d come round and say hey before heading to the gym.”

Clarke raised her eyebrows in disbelief. “You’re going to the gym?” she asked with a voice drenched in shock.

“Excuse you, my body is a temple and I always take extra care to treat it with respect and love!” Raven replied, feigning being insulted.

Clarke laughed sarcastically before stating the obvious, “Octavia’s somehow bribed you in to going with her.”

Octavia was Clarke’s other best friend and they had known each other for almost their whole lives. Clarke had moved to D.C when her dad had died 10 years ago, and had moved next door to the Blakes. The family had two children: Octavia who was Clarke’s age, and Bellamy who was a few years older. Octavia was such a friendly and warm person that it took no time for the two of them to become the best of friends. A friendship which lasted through middle school, high school, college, and into their adult lives. Clarke and Bellamy, however, had had a rocky start as they were both stubborn and fiery personalities, but as they had grown older they had learned to live amicably next door to each other. As long as they were never left alone in a room together they were fine!

“Maybe,” Raven smiled at her friend, she loved that the blonde knew her so well, “but that’s of no real importance. The important thing is that I’ve been here for well over 5 minutes now and yet no one has offered me a nice cold refreshment! I may have to talk to management about the staff here!”

“Fuck off!” the waitress spat jokingly at her friend, “Do that and I will kill you. Jaha’s already moaned at me today for daring to stand by the fan for a few seconds in order to cool me down! It’s so hot in here Raven I think I’m starting to melt.”

“I’m not sure about melt, but you are definitely starting to stink the place out! I’ve already seen 3 different groups of customers run outta here, holding their noses in disgust!” The brunette had to duck and to avoid the towel that was sent hurting towards her.

“Sit down, shut up, and I’ll get you your damned iced frappe. If not, I will chase you out of this stupid café with the mop we use to clean the toilets. Kapeesh?”

Raven chuckled but sat down anyway and awaited her drink thankfully. A few minutes later there was a delicious glass of the girl’s favourite drink in her hands and she took a sip from it, moaning at both the taste and the way it instantly cooled her down. As she sipped her drink she looked around the shop with vague interest. She enjoyed people watching, especially in places like Arcadia, as she loved to make up stories about all the different people she spotted.

Raven was smiling to herself as she concluded that the man in the corner was definitely texting back a crush as he was blushing ferociously with a wide cheesy grin on his face as he looked down at his phone. Suddenly someone entering the café caught the girl’s eye. Raven looked over at the door and her eyes almost popped out of her head! Entering the café was probably the most gorgeous specimen Raven had ever seen. She watched in awe as the woman walked towards the barista and waited in the short queue. The woman was tall with slightly wavy brunette hair that reached her lower back. Beautiful green eyes were enunciated by perfectly winged eyeliner and her jawline may as well been chiselled by the finest sculpture it was so perfect. A noise next to Raven brought her out of her trance, and she looked sideways to see Clarke had sat down next to her. Raven was still in awe and couldn’t help but move her eyes away from her friend and back to the stunning creature who was now being served.

“Dude what are you looking at?” came her friends voice as she felt a hand slightly shake her.

“Huh?” she asked dumbly, not bothering to tear her eyes away from the woman.

“Raven!” Clarke called loudly, making a few people near them look over in curiosity. This made Raven finally turn away and focus on her friend.

“What?...Oh sorry! Were you saying something?” she asked dumbly, still in a slight haze.

“Yeah, I was asking what time you’re meeting Octavia. I know she’s due to start her late shift this evening so I thought if you’re not heading to the gym too soon I could come with you,” Clarke stated with exasperation.

“Uhm…no. No sorry, we’re going pretty much now. She’s meeting me there in a few minutes actually,” Raven responded, her attention finally fully on her blonde friend.

“Oh okay, never mind,” Clarke sighed. She wasn’t exactly upset as she hated going to the gym or doing any kind of exercise really, but she knew she needed to get some in if she wanted her summer body ready before her trip to Cyprus in a few months’ time. “What were you so fixated on anyway?” she asked after a few seconds pause.

Raven blushed slightly but wasn’t really embarrassed to admit the truth. She hadn’t been out of the closet for long, so it was all quite new to her, but at the same time she was the type of person who really didn’t care if her friends knew she was checking a fit girl out. “I just saw the most perfectly sculptured human being to grace this earth,” the girl exclaimed dramatically.

Clarke laughed lightly. Raven was always getting infatuated by people. Boys and girls alike. She would see a good looking person and be obsessed with them for a couple of minutes but would then forget all about them.

“Alright where is she or he? Point them out to me, I wanna see if your taste has improved since Toupee Guy!” Clarke teased, bringing up the moment when her friend had made her and Octavia follow this guy around in a club a few months back, because he was “the sexiest man after Ryan Gosling”, but when they had finally found him he turned out to be more of a Donald Trump considering he had a very obvious toupee on his head.

“Oh very funny Griffin,” the brunette replied dryly, “trust me on this one. Even you’re gonna wet your pants!” Raven scanned the café, looking for the beautiful girl and found her sitting by herself in a corner of the café, sipping a drink and looking at several pieces of paper that were sprawled across the table. Raven smiled dopily and slyly pointed her out to Clarke. “There. She’s over there. The one with brown hair wearing that suit. Oh man I love a woman in a suit!”

Clarke followed her friend’s finger and her eyes settled on the girl. She looked her over, taking in her appearance and she smiled lightly as she realised who it was. Raven looked back with wide eyes, nodding her head as if to say “See? Told you she was hot!” The blonde laughed at her friends antics and shook her head.

“You’re impossible! You do realise you’re gonna have forgotten all about her before the day is over right?”

“That’s not the point Clarke. The point is holy hell she’s hot!” Raven exclaimed, a little too loudly. Clarke shushed her, reminding her friend that this was her place of work.

“Yes Raven, she is pretty darn hot. Bit stuck up, but yeah she’s got the whole business woman vibe going on, I’ll give you that.”

“Wait. How do you know she’s stuck up?” Raven asked. “Do you know her? Like personally? Like you’ve talked to her?”

“Yes of course I’ve talked to her. I’m surprised you’ve never seen her before to be honest considering she’s here all the time. She’s one of our regulars,” Clarke explained.

At that moment Jaha came over to them and tapped on his watch, clearly telling Clarke that her break was over and it was time to go back to work. Clarke rolled her eyes and made a rude gesture at the man once his back was turned, but then sighed dejectedly and got up.

“Guess that’s my cue then Reyes. I’ll see you at home after my shift. I probably won’t be back before Octavia has to leave for her shift so tell her I say hi.”

“Yeah will do. I really wish you two weren’t working these stupid shifts. You’re always working all day and she’s working nights and it’s never the three of us together anymore. The 3 musketeers are falling apart and it’s breaking my fragile little heart!” Raven dramatically grabbed at her chest as she exclaimed these words.

“I know, it sucks. It’s not our fault though. It’s our evil boss who’s to blame, he’s purposefully put us on different shifts all month because apparently we never get work done when we’re together,” the blonde explained sadly. “Anyway, I’ll catch you later. Have fun!”

“See you,” the brunette replied, giving Clarke a quick hug before heading out of the shop to meet their other friend. Clarke sighed long and loud, stretching as she made to get back to work. 3 more hours she thought to herself. Just 3 more hours, then she could leave this place and go have a nice hot bath at home before attempting to get back to her painting. She heard a cling as the door to the café opened and looked up to see the beautiful girl leaving. Clarke sighed again. She wasn’t sure what it was, but she loved it when the beautiful brunette came in to Arcadia. Something about her drew Clarke in. Maybe it was the air of dominance she gave off, or perhaps it was the mysteriousness of her. Clarke, like Raven, loved to people watch and make up stories about all the different people she saw. It was one of the only things that got her through her job each day. And she was pretty good at it, always coming up with exciting stories for each person, which every now and then turned out to be pretty close to their reality.

However, when it came to the brunette, Clarke was always stuck. She figured the girl was a business woman of sorts and took her job seriously, but other than that, and the fact that she appeared to have no friends or family as she was never seen with anyone else or seen talking amicably on the phone to anyone, Clarke really couldn’t figure the girl out. The blonde watched as the mysterious girl pulled a pair of sunglasses out of her bag and started walking away from the café.

“Till next time Alexandria”, she whispered to herself before getting back to serving her other customers.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who commented and left a kudos. It means the absolute world to me.
> 
> This chapter is quite a bit longer, as promised!

“Table 5 needs clearing Blake”, Jaha shouted at Octavia who was 4 hours in to her 8 hour shift, and 2 minutes away from losing her temper.

“I’m a bit busy at the moment!” she replied, holding up the tray of drinks and food she was carrying as proof.

“Griffin!” Jaha shouted, moving his attention from the girl to her friend.

“Yes sir. I’m on it like a car bonnet,” Clarke responded jokingly.

Clarke had only got half an hour left of her shift at Arcadia and so her spirits were a little higher than Octavia’s.

The blonde was excited, more than usual, to finish her shift today as she had a meeting with a man who worked at an art gallery. He was going to look through some of her paintings and possibly use one or two in his upcoming event promoting new artists in the area.

Clarke had always loved art. Even when she was just a little girl and her dad would take her to the park, she would sit on one of the swings and watch the world. Watch the way the trees bent in the wind and marvelled at how beautiful the clouds looked swirling around the sky above her. As she grew older the interest she had in the world around her only intensified, but instead of simply revelling in it, she started to sketch it. She would go to the park or sit by the lake near her house and draw all that she saw.

When she was 15 her father died and her love for art seemingly died along with him. She stopped painting. Stopped sketching and drawing. Stopped marvelling at the world and rather started loathing it. So when it was time for her to go to college, she decided to follow her mother’s footsteps and study medicine even though it had always been her, and her father’s, dream for her to study art. She just couldn’t continue capturing the world on an easel when every time she put pencil to paper she was reminded of her father.  However, it didn’t take long for her to realise that it had been the biggest mistake of her life. And thanks to some sound advice from friends and a massive waking up call she dropped out of college and decided to pursue a career in art. Or attempt to anyway.

“I swear I’m gonna stab him!” Octavia’s voice brought Clarke out of her thoughts.

“Breathe,” Clarke grabbed her friend by the shoulders and looked her in the eyes. “In. Out. In Out. Calm down. You can’t kill him…we need the money for rent remember?”

Octavia chuckled and rolled her eyes. “Fine!” she sighed exasperatedly, “but if he barks my name out like we’re in the military again, you cannot hold me accountable for my actions!”

“Just remember, I am not gonna give the police a false alibi. I am an upstanding member of the community!” Clarke replied.

“Yeah okay sure. We totally have never smoked any illegal substances together and then proceeded to sneak in to a professors office to steal the mid-term exam,” Octavia snorted.

Clarke chuckled at the memory. Man they were so cool. Idiots for sure. But cool! They had ended up not stealing the exam sheet as they had got preoccupied marvelling at the fish swimming around in their professors fish tank and had ultimately forgotten what they had gone in the office for in the first place, so had simply walked out of there a few minutes later totally perplexed.

“Still won’t alibi you out!”

“Whatever, Raven will so it’s all good. At least I know which friend I can count on.”

The blonde rolled her eyes, chortling at her friend’s antics. She knew the brunette was right, Raven would totally alibi her out if she did end up stabbing their boss right through the heart. Raven was exactly the type of friend who had your back no matter what. She wasn’t exactly the best for having emotional one-on-one conversations with or for getting advice from, but if you were ever in trouble or sad she would be there with a bottle of vodka and a shovel!

“Raven will do what?” the girl herself asked as walked up to her two friends.

“Provide me with a false alibi if I kill Jaha,” Octavia explained nonchalantly. 

“Hell yes I would!” Raven replied as though it were the most obvious thing in the world, which quite frankly it was.

Clarke smiled at the pair. They hadn’t known each other for very long and if it hadn’t been for Clarke they probably would never have been friends, as their only link to each other was the blonde. Once Clarke and Raven had buried the hatchet over the whole dating the same guy thing and had become friends Raven started hanging out at Clarke and Octavia’s dorm room all the time. She basically began living there. Octavia originally wasn’t too fond of the new girl in Clarke’s life as she still partially blamed her for the heartache her best friend had suffered due to her stupid ex-boyfriend. However, one night the three of them were all at a party hosted by some of Raven’s friends and it was there that Octavia had a change of heart when it came to the Latina.

 

 _“Griffin I swear to the big guy in the sky that it’s all good_. _Monty and Jasper won’t give a flying fuck that I’m bringing people they’ve never met,” Raven all but shouted at her friend. “Honestly, considering I’m bringing two single and very attractive girls, I think they may actually worship me!”_

_“Okay, only if you’re sure. I really don’t wanna turn up to a place I’m clearing not wanted at,” Clarke replied uncertainly._

_Raven said nothing and instead opted for grabbing the girl by her arms and forcing her out of the door. She had been trying to coax the girl out of her dorm room for hours and she was losing her patience._

_“Octavia are you ready?” Raven shouted as she finally got Clarke through the door._

_“Yeah I’m here,” Octavia said as she closed the door behind them. “I am so getting wasted tonight. I need to get my mind off of exams and boys and protective big brothers.”_

_The trio headed to the party, all of them excited to blow off some steam as it had been a long few weeks full of pulling all-nighters to study and finish off essays._

_When they got to the student housing where the party was taking place Raven wandered off to say hi to her friends, leaving Clarke and Octavia hanging around awkwardly by the door._

_“How can she just leave us like that? She’s the only one we fucking know,” Octavia complained._

_“Could you maybe go one night without bitching about her? You’re the one who wanted to go out drinking and she offered to bring you. So really you should be thanking her not criticising.”_

_Octavia shrugged non committedly. “Look, I just don’t trust her okay?”_

_“I know you don’t, but surely you trust me and I trust her, so please just for this one night will you drop it?”_

_“Fine. But don’t expect me to start singing kumbaya on the karaoke with her,” the brunette snapped. “She’s the reason you got your heart broken and I do not believe her abysmal excuses saying she didn’t know about you. So to me she’s a Class A Bitch and always will be. But because I love you so much I will drop it this one time and attempt to be civil.”_

_Clarke smiled appreciatively at her friend. “Thanks O.”_

_She knew not to push the subject anymore. Octavia was a very protective and loyal friend, one that didn’t forgive easily if she believed someone had caused her friend any kind of pain. And in Octavia’s mind, Raven had done that. She refused to believe that the Latina hadn’t known about Clarke and Finn, but had purposefully slept with the blonde’s boyfriend just for the sake of it and because she didn’t give a fuck about infidelity or hurting peoples’ feelings. Clarke had pointed out many times that Raven’s friends probably thought that about her, and that if what she thought of Raven was true then why had Raven cut all ties with Finn and was now spending almost all her time with Clarke. Alas, Octavia never listened to her and decided to be stubborn with her beliefs._

_The girls decided to move away from the door as they were starting to block the way for new comers, and they headed over to the kitchen so they could grab a drink._

_After five shots of tequila and two cups of vodka and coke the girls were feeling a lot less awkward and a hell of a lot more drunk. Octavia was dancing with a lanky guy who looked like he was about two grinds of Octavia’s ass from jizzing in his boxers. Clarke watched them with a mixture of amusement and disgust as she downed her third drink._

_“Hey,” came a voice from behind her. Clarke may have been well on her to being smashed, and her vision was foggy and the world spinning, but she couldn’t help but recognise the voice in an instant. Her body tensed and her blood ran cold as she turned around to stare dumbfounded at her ex-boyfriend._

_“Finn,” she spluttered._

_The boy ran a hand through his dishevelled hair and smiled nervously at his ex-girlfriend. “Clarke, it’s so good to see you. You look amazing!”_

_Clarke said nothing. She was still so shocked to see him there. It was silly really as in reality she knew she was going to have to see him again. Considering they attended the same college, it was highly surprising that they hadn’t already bumped in to each other._

_Finn took Clarke’s silence and look of utter disbelief as a good thing and he took a step towards her. He reached out a hand and pushed a stray piece of hair behind her ear and smiled slightly at her. “I know you probably don’t want to hear this, but I really miss you babe.”_

_These words brought Clarke out of her stupor and she quickly took a step back, out of Finn’s reach._

_“Babe?” Finn spoke cautiously, worried that if he spoke too loud or rushed his words, Clarke would tell him to get lost. “Just give me a chance. You gotta know how sorry I am and how much I knew I was making a massive mistake the whole time. Raven meant nothing. It was always you and it still is.”_

_He paused and looked her in the eye, stepping forwards once again. “Clarke, I love you.”_

_All of a sudden there was a loud crash to their left. “Oh hell no!”_

_Clarke ripped her eyes from the boy she once thought she loved and turned to look over to where Raven was storming towards them._

_A wave of fear washed over Finn’s face before he schooled his features and glared at his other ex-girlfriend. “Raven don’t do this. Just because I’ve chosen Clarke doesn’t mean you have to start a fight with her.”_

_The brunette gawped at him before laughing hollowly. “Oh my God, you actually believe that don’t you?” she asked, voice dripping with disbelief and amazement._

_The boy looked confused and said nothing._

_“You really think I’m storming over here because I’m jealous? Because I want you? You honestly believe I would fight with Clarke over you?” Raven asked loudly. “I’m storming over here to tell you to fuck off.”_

_She took a step forward so that her face was right by Finn’s, hardly a breath between them. Finn looked as though he wanted to step back but decided to stand his ground._

_“It’s none of your business and you have no right to tell me to go anywhere. I’m having a private conversation with my girlfriend and really it’s you who needs to fuck off,” he spat at her. “Nobody wants you Raven. You’ll always be second best.”_

_Raven faltered slightly at these words and she had to force herself not to show how much it stung her to hear someone she once truly loved saying that to her when it was something she truly believed herself._

_Finn smirked as he saw her face fall and her stance slightly crumble, but the smirk was quickly wiped away as Raven landed a punch straight to his jaw. It wasn’t particularly hard as the girl hadn’t really planned on doing it, and Finn had managed to move back slightly just in time. But it was enough to start things in motion._

_Anger instantly filled the boy’s eyes as he held his jaw in shock. “You fucking bitch!” he screamed at her as he jumped on top of her._

_Clarke, who had been standing to the side watching the two, too shocked and definitely too drunk to add anything to their conversation, was suddenly shocked in to action as she saw Finn hurl himself at her new friend. She yelled at him and begged him to stop, pulling at him and hitting him on the shoulder. Nothing worked. Finn had his whole weight on top of Raven and was hitting her over and over again, a look of insanity in his eye as though he wasn’t even thinking or even really aware of what he was doing._

_Clarke started crying as she watched it all unfold, knowing that she wasn’t strong enough to stop him, when suddenly the boy was being yanked off of Raven and being tossed easily to the side. A tall, dark, and incredibly muscular man was offering a hand to help Raven up off the floor._

_“Are you okay?” he asked her softly. The gentle voice did not suit the muscular man, and yet somehow it did._

_“Yeah, I’m good,” the girl responded as she took the man’s hand and stood up. “The loser hardly got a single punch in.”_

_The man looked at her with a puzzled expression. “Are you sure? Because you have a swollen eye, a bust lip and you’re bleeding profusely from your nose.”_

_Raven winced as she felt her nose but she simply stood up straighter and replied, “I’m fine.”_

_The man nodded his head and didn’t say any more about it. He then turned round and walked to where Finn was struggling to get up and easy as pie lifted him up by the scruff of his shirt._

_“Let go of me you fucking bastard!” Finn shouted as the man dragged him away from the two girls._

_Clarke was already at Raven’s side and checking her cuts and bruises. “Raven I’m so sorry!” she exclaimed._

_Raven turned to look at her in surprise. “You’re sorry? For what?”_

_Clarke faltered, not quite sure what she was sorry for but then said, “For bringing this in to your life. For not stopping him. Not telling him to get lost as soon as he showed up.”_

_Raven laughed slightly, and then winced as this made her lip open up and cause blood to spill down her chin. “Oh for fucks sake Clarke, can you please stop being such an incredible person?”_

_The blonde looked at her in confusion._

_“Don’t look at me like that,” Raven said with slight humour in her voice. “You have nothing to apologise for. You loved the boy and he hurt you, and then turns up out of the blue asking for you back. Of course you’re gonna be flustered and unsure. Luckily he had already tried that speech on me a few days ago so I was able to see him for who he really was tonight.”_

_“Wait…what?” Clarke asked, her voice laced with confusion._

_“Yeah what the fuck?” came another voice._

_Octavia walked over to them, gave a Raven a brief up and down before turning to Clarke and asking, “Was that Finn I just saw being dragged out of here?”_

_“Yeah,” was all Clarke could say._

_“What the fuck was he doing here?” Octavia looked from one girl to another until realisation suddenly dawned on her. “Wait. Did he…did he do that to you?!” she asked incredulously as she pointed to Raven’s face._

_“It’s no biggie. Like I said, the idiot hardly landed a punch. Bit pathetic really.”_

_“Why did he hit you?”_

_Raven shrugged and said nothing. She knew Octavia wasn’t too fond of her and she wasn’t really in the mood to hear whatever she had to say about the situation._

_It was Clarke that finally responded to Octavia’s question. “Finn wanted me back, he said he was sorry and he loved me. I was shocked and just stood there but then Raven came over and told him to fuck off. He said some nasty and untrue things,” Clarke emphasised that bit as she looked at Raven, “So Raven kind of hit him. Then he went crazy. Like really crazy O! He was on top of her and hitting her non-stop, just over and over again and I couldn’t stop him. I wasn’t strong enough and he wasn’t listening to me and I thought he was gonna kill her till that dude came along and dragged him off her.”_

_Octavia stood there with her mouth open as Clarke finished the brief rehashing of the events that had just happened. She then turned to look at Raven and asked, “And what were you saying about him trying a speech on you?”_

_Raven eyed Octavia sceptically, debating whether to tell her to fuck off as it was none of her business. It took her less than two seconds to realise. Realise why she was asking, why she loathed Raven in the first place, why she was so involved in this. She loved Clarke. It was that simple. Raven knew they had been friends for a while but hadn’t realised until that moment just how much they truly cared for each other and that Octavia was simply being a good friend to Clarke._

_The girl smiled ever so slightly before sighing and telling them the story of how Finn had cornered her after one of their lectures together. How he had apologised and said she was the one and he loved her and Clarke meant nothing. He had wanted her back and she had been so close to saying yes._

_“I loved him,” she explained to the two girls. “He was my everything. I’d been with him for years and he was my family. The only person who really knew me and cared about me and saw me for who I really am and not the charade I present to the world.”_

_Clarke and Octavia nodded, understanding that this was extremely hard for the girl to speak out loud._

_“So when he went to kiss me I didn’t stop him. And for a few seconds I was happy. Everything was back to normal and I had my family back. He loved me again and all was okay. But then I thought about you,” Raven looked at Clarke and smiled sadly. “I thought about you and how he hurt you. How he hurt me by being with you. How you didn’t deserve any of this just as much as I didn’t. And all of a sudden I was pushing him off me and swearing at him and telling him he was a cunt and he better not try this shit on you or I would punch him.”_

_Raven shrugged as she finished her story._

_“You were with him for years?” Octavia voiced the question that Clarke had been thinking._

_The girl nodded. In that moment she had never seemed so small and vulnerable. Both girls only ever saw her as the loud and sarcastic joker, not as this emotional and fragile young girl._

_“We met when we were 10 and were best friends for years before it kinda just naturally turned romantic. I was supposed to go to Stanford cause they have a killer engineer course but he said he would miss me too much and pretty much begged me to come with him here. And he was my whole world so I said yes. Biggest mistake of my life,” she spat angrily._

_Clarke put her arm around her friend. She felt so much love for the girl after hearing all of this. She had had no idea that Finn and her had been that serious._

_“So Clarke was the other girl,” Octavia stated suddenly. She had a look on her face that neither Raven nor Clarke could decipher._

_“We both were I suppose,” Raven replied. “I don’t think either one of us was the side chick cause I don’t think he ever truly cared about either of us._

_“I’m gonna kill him,” Octavia growled._

_Raven started to chuckle before she noticed that the girl was turning around and heading towards the door that Finn had recently been dragged through._

_“O!” Clarke shouted as she ran after her friend. “O, don’t do this. He’s not worth it.”_

_Octavia shook Clarkes hand from her shoulder and kept walking with such determination everyone around her jumped out of her way. “He deserves to feel pain. He can’t do that and get away with it.”_

_Suddenly they were outside and Octavia was searching for the boy. She was looking left and right, walking down the path then back up again, searching for him everywhere while muttering to herself._

_Raven had caught up to them at this point and was watching the girl pacing up and down the path._

_“Octavia, I know you’re upset about Finn hurting Clarke, and I get it. We’re all angry at him for it, but he’s really not worth it.”_

_Octavia wasn’t listening and suddenly her head snapped to the right as she heard a commotion. She ran towards the noise and finally found what she had been looking for._

_“There you are, you big nasty floppy haired turnip!” she screamed as she hurtled towards Finn._

_The man who had helped Raven up was still with the boy and he instantly grabbed Octavia round the waist and stopped her from jumping on Finn._

_“Get your hands off me!” she yelled at the man._

_He didn’t let go but instead held her firmer as she started to writhe and wriggle, trying with all her might to get free._

_“Octavia,” he said quietly. “Calm down.”_

_The girl stopped and stared at the man who was holding her back from realising hell on the stupid man child who was now cowering in the distance, trying to run away._

_“How do you know my name?” she asked him._

_He shrugged and offered no reply. Instead he loosened his grip on her and said, “Just calm down please. That boy is not worth the trouble.”_

_Those words reminded Octavia why she was so angry in the first place and so she started struggling again, this time managing to get free and the man was not prepared for it._

_She ran towards Finn who was quickly stalking off in to the darkness. “Come back here you coward!”_

_He stopped in his tracks and just had time to look back, fear and surprise in his eyes, before Octavia connected with him. Their bodies fell to the floor in a heap, but in no time at all Octavia had gotten herself up and on her knees and she was holding Finn by the throat._

_“Stop!” Clarke yelled as she caught up with her friend, Raven hot on her heels._

_Octavia ignored her best friend and continued to hold Finn down by his neck. Her mouth was curled in to a horrifying snarl and she stared down at him with such hatred in her eyes._

_“How dare you treat people like that,” she spat at him. “What kind of person can cheat on their girlfriend and best friend of almost 10 years and not even give a shit about how it hurts her? And then you have the audacity to lay a hand on her. You disgust me Finn Collins and you deserve to die!”_

_Finn was whimpering below her when Raven walked over to them and put a hand on the girl’s shoulder._

_“Octavia, please stop. You’re going to kill him,” she said quietly._

_“I don’t care!”_

_“Well I do, okay? I know he deserves to suffer but you don’t deserve to go to prison and that’s where you’re gonna end up if you don’t stop.”_

_This made Octavia falter slightly and her grip lessen considerably._

_“Listen to me. This boy squirming on the ground is a piece of trash and one day he will get his comeuppance, but for now the best thing for all of us is to walk away and not look back. We need him out of our lives.”_

_Octavia growled as she forced Finn further in to the ground as she applied greater pressure to his neck before letting go and standing quickly to her feet._

_“If you come near Clarke or Raven again I will end your life,” she whispered coldly at him before walking off and not looking back._

_This left Clarke and Raven standing over their ex-boyfriend and wondering what to do. They looked at him with such disgust before looking at each other. The moment their eyes met they started giggling. Their giggles turned in to laughs and soon they were howling with laughter._

_The boy below them looked at them confused but decided to not saying anything and so he simply lay there, massaging his neck and looking way too sorry for himself._

_“Come on Griffin,” Raven said to her friend._

_The two girls walked off without even giving Finn a second glance, and went back to enjoy the party with Octavia._

 

“The fuck you smiling at?” Raven asked, pulling Clarke out of her own mind.

“Just remembering the day you two officially became friends,” was Clarke’s reply.

“You mean the night I kicked Finn’s scrawny little ass?” Octavia asked, puffing her chest out and flexing her muscles jokingly.

The three girls laughed loudly. It had been years since that night, and since then the three of them had been as close as friends could be. It was no longer a case of Clarke and Octavia being best friends and Raven kind of being friends with Clarke. Now the three of them were all equally part of the trio. Or the Three Musketeers, as they liked to call themselves when drunk!

A jingling at the front door made the three of them look up and see who was entering the café now. They were so busy today and so a new customer was not exactly a welcome sight.  However, as Clarke’s eyes fell on this particular customer, she couldn’t help but smile slightly.

“Oh my God she’s back!” Raven exclaimed quietly.

“What? Who?” Octavia asked, thoroughly confused.

Raven pointed at the mysterious and beautiful brunette who was looking around the café for a table to sit at.

“Isn’t she stunning?” Raven sighed.

Octavia laughed at her friends antics. “Oh Raven you are such a crush whore!”

“I’m sorry, a what?”

“A crush whore. You develop crushes so quickly and then within a few days you’ve moved on and developed a new crush. And the cycle never really ends.”

“I am not a crush whore!”

“You are.”

“Am not.”

“Are too.”

“Am not.”

“Yes hello what can I get for you?” Octavia spoke loudly, making Raven snap her eyes up and notice, with great embarrassment, that the brunette she had been ogling moments before was now standing right beside her and trying to order a drink from Octavia.

The girl momentarily looked at Raven, eyeing her up and down quickly, before turning to Octavia. “I’ll have a chai tea.”

“Anything else?” Octavia asked politely while holding in a smirk.

“No, just the tea.”

“Okay that will be $3.45 then please.”

The girl handed her money over and tapped her fingers on the counter as she waited for her tea. Once she had it in her hands she said a quick thank you to Octavia before walking off to her table.

As soon as she was gone Octavia was wheezing with laughter. “You shoulda seen your face!”

Raven blushed slightly but waved her hand as though it didn’t bother her. “Whatever, I don’t care. It was nothing. It’s all good. Whatever.”

Clarke laughed along with her friend before noticing Jaha was making a beeline for them. “Oh shit, look like you’re hard at work.”

Octavia scurried off in search of a customer who might need help, while Clarke started to randomly move things around on the counter in the hopes of looking like she was tidying up.

“Griffin is your friend ordering anything or is she here to just take up space that paying customers could be using?” he asked harshly as soon as he was next to the two girls.

“I’ve just ordered actually,” Raven replied.

“Oh really?” Jaha asked, clearly not believing her. “Okay then, Griffin serve the girl what she wants and if she stays more than 10 minutes then she needs to order something else. Paying customers only.”

He stared at them both as he walked off to bother some other poor sods who worked for him. Clarke just hoped he didn’t find Octavia and start on her, or she was sure there would be blood spilled in Arcadia tonight.

Clarke made Raven her favourite drink and put her own money in the till.

“Dude you gotta stop doing that,” Raven said.

“You’ve been saving my ass month after month with the rent Raven, it’s the least I could do,” Clarke replied giving the girl a grateful smile.

Raven shook her head but said no more. Money wasn’t really something they liked to talk about considering Clarke had none.

“Okay so you gotta go talk to her,” Raven suddenly said after a few minutes of comfortable silence.

“Eh?” Clarke replied non-committedly. She was preoccupied with trying to make a tower out of toothpicks and wasn’t really listening to her friend at all.

“The beautiful and mysterious girl,” Raven explained. “You gotta go talk to her.”

“Why?” Clarke asked.

She pretended as though the suggestion was ridiculous, as though she hadn’t time and time again thought about talking to the girl she couldn’t figure out.

“Come on Clarke! For me?” Raven begged as she gave Clarke perfect puppy dog eyes.

Clarke could feel her heart pounding as she thought about it. She had no idea why she felt like this, it wasn’t as though she was a shy person. She was extremely outgoing and pretty much never gave a rat’s ass about what anyone thought of her. Yet here she was; her heart racing and redness colouring her cheeks as she thought about simply going over to the girl and conversing with her.

“Why don’t you go and talk to her?” she questioned.

“Cause I have no cover. I can’t just go over and start a conversation, whereas you can. You can offer her a new drink or whatever,” Raven replied.

Clarke pondered this as Raven watched her, smiling broadly as she realised the blonde was going to do it.

“Fine. But I’m only doing this for you. To show you she isn’t some kind of Goddess but merely a human being, capable of being talked to,” Clarke said.

“Yes!” Raven exclaimed happily.

Clarke took a deep breath, telling herself over and over again to stop being so silly. She was sure the nerves were down to the fact that the girl had an aura about her that made her appear so important and in command of everything and everyone around her. The fact that she was beautiful had nothing to do with it. She walked over to the table where the girl was sitting, straightening her back and calming her breathing down as she did.

“Hi, can I get you anything else?” she asked, putting on her best cheery voice.

“No,” was all the girl said. She didn’t look up or even move her eyes from the papers she was studying so intensely.

Clarke stood there, as if waiting for her to say more. But nothing came.

A few seconds passed, and Clarke was still standing there, feeling highly foolish now, and staring dumbly at the girl. Finally the girl tore her eyes from the stack of paper work and looked at Clarke with a questioning gaze. She cocked her eyebrow at the blonde but said nothing.

Clarke spluttered slightly, feeling her face go red as she realised she had just been standing there staring at the girl.

“Uhm…okay…are you sure?” she stummered, cursing herself for how foolish she was coming across.

“Quite sure, yes,” was the cool reply.

Clarke was shocked. She had thought that the girl was maybe a bit stuck up as she never talked to anyone, and she always appeared so stoic and serious, but this was downright rude. No thank you, no smile, hardly even an acknowledgment.

The blonde watched as the girl moved her eyes and her attention back to her work, clearly telling Clarke that their very short lived conversation was over. She clenched her jaw tightly in ager, and to stop herself from saying anything else. She was at work, and while she highly disliked her job, she also very much needed it. So she held her tongue and forced herself to walk away from the rude, stuck up bitch.

“How did it go?” Raven asked as soon as Clarke was back by her side.

“She is the rudest, most stuck up, prissy little bitch I have ever had the misfortune of meeting,” Clarke told her. “Honestly Raven, don’t waste another second of your time on her. She’s clearly some rich spoilt girl who thinks she’s better than a lowly waitress.

Raven looked surprised, but then sighed and said, “Darn it. I thought she might be a bit uptight but I was hoping it was in the sexy way. Like she was all prim and proper in the streets but a nasty girl in the sheets!”

Clarke looked disgusted at her friend’s words, and then said, “Seriously though, she’s not worth our thoughts and she’s definitely not worth your drool. So get yourself together and find a new person to salivate over.”

Raven laughed but agreed with her friend. She didn’t have time to be crushing over a stuck up princess. She liked her people down to earth and ready for some fun. Plus, if she had been rude to Clarke then she definitely was not worthy of another second of Raven’s thoughts.

* * *

Clarke smiled happily as she stepped out in to the blazing sun. It was such a beautiful day and she had just finished work, so she refused to let anything bring her mood down. Not to mention that she was on her way to the art gallery where she was hopefully going to hear that some of her paintings were going to be put on display.

She quickly looked at her watch and decided that she would head straight to the gallery as it was at least a 20 minute walk away. Her mind was full of all the possibilities of what could come, her heart full of hope, and her step had a most definite spring in it.

Less than 20 minutes later she was walking through the double doors which led in to a large room with several beautiful pieces of artwork hanging on the walls. Clarke walked slowly around the room, admiring all that she saw. The thought that maybe one day soon her artwork may be hanging beside such beautiful paintings made her heart sore and her head go all dizzy with excitement.

After a few minutes she headed up to the third floor where she was going to meet Mr Wallace. She located his office and knocked on the door. Her hands were shaking and she could feel herself starting to get nervous, and so she took several long breaths and closed her eyes. Her mind went straight to her dad and she imagined what he would say if he was there with her.

The door suddenly opened and Clarke’s eyes snapped open. An elderly man with white hair smiled at her. Clarke smiled nervously back before entering the office. The voice of her father saying “ _You got this kiddo”_ running through her mind like a mantra, and it gave the strength to calm down and actually enjoy this opportunity.

“Please sit down Clarke,” the man said as he gestured towards the chair in front of her.

Clarke sat down and eagerly waited for the man to talk more.

“My granddaughter Maya says that you are a very talented artist and that I simply have got to take a look at your work,” he said as he sat down opposite her.

“Oh well Maya is a very lovely girl Mr Wallace and I’m very flattered that she talked to you about me,” Clarke replied. Maya was her friend Jasper’s girlfriend and she truly was a nice girl. Way out of Jasper’s league really but she was making him a lot more mature and serious and so Clarke was extremely supportive of their relationship.

“Please, call me Dante,” he said pleasantly.

Clarke smiled and nodded her head. It was already going so well and she could feel the hope bubbling away in her belly, giving her a serious case of butterflies.

“So I brought some of my favourite pieces I’ve done,” Clarke said as she pulled a file out of her bag. “They are mostly paintings but also a few charcoal pieces and one I did with my pencil on the subway a few months ago!”

She handed over the file to Dante and waited with bated breath as he took a look through. She simultaneously hated and loved this part. Showing her art work to others was always difficult as she felt like she was handing over her heart and soul. Baring herself for them to see her. But at the same time, it filled her with such pride when she saw the way people looked at her pieces. Well it usually did.

Dante looked up at her, and she saw that he wasn’t exactly beaming with enthusiasm over her work, instead he had a curious look on his face.

“Tell me Clarke, how much do you want your art work in my gallery?”

Clarke was slightly confused, but she figured that he just wanted to gauage how serious she was about her art, and so she replied, “Very much sir. Art is my passion. It’s the reason I get up in the morning and it would be my dream to be able to capture the world on paper for the rest of my life, not just as a hobby, but as a career.”

Dante Wallace nodded, looking hopeful. “To my understanding, my granddaughter is in a romantic relationship with your friend. A Mr Jasper Jordan, correct?”

Now Clarke was very confused, she really couldn’t see what this had to do with her work. Maybe he was making small talk, she thought to herself.

“Uhm, yes. Yes that’s correct.”

Dante nodded again before he stood up went over to his window. He picked up a framed photo, and Clarke realised it was Maya and himself in the photo. “Maya is my pride and joy,” he started, “She is kind and loyal and hardworking, and one day she will inherit everything I own.”

Clarke didn’t know if she was supposed to say anything, and so she simply smiled awkwardly and waited for him to continue with his story.  

“So you can understand my…concern,” he continued, “over the fact that she is now involved with this boy you claim to be friends with. I have met him on a few occasions and I must say, he hardly seems like the right fit for Maya.”

Clarke could do nothing but gape at him. How dare he say such things about her friend! How dare he say such things about anyone. Sure, Jasper was immature and silly and annoying, but he was kind and caring, and he made Maya happy. Isn’t that what love was? Isn’t that what everyone deserves?

“I’m sorry,” she said, praying that she had it all wrong, “but it seems as though you’re telling me all of this for a reason.”

“I am not proud of what I am about to ask of you Clarke, but you understand how it is. I simply want the best for my Maya.”

“What exactly is it that you’re asking?”

“I will happily place two pieces of your work. The painting of the lake and maybe the charcoal drawing of this man,” he said as he pointed to Clarke’s favourite picture she had ever done of her father. “All I ask in return is that you persuade your friend that Maya is not the one for him.”

The silence that followed seemed to echo loudly through the room. Neither of the two people spoke or made any sound, but simply stared at each other. Dante looked at Clarke with hope in his eyes and with a slight glare as if daring Clarke to say no. As for Clarke, she was staring right back at him, but there was no hope in her eyes. Just anger. Pure, unadulterated anger. Without thinking or speaking, she rose out of her chair and grabbed the file containing all of her artwork, and walked out of the room.

As she reached the door she looked back at Dante Wallace, and she saw in his face what she had been too blind to see before. There was no kindness in his smile, no love for art in his eyes, no friendliness in the way he glared at her.

“You are a vile person Mr Wallace,” she said calmly before walking out of the office and out of her one opportunity at a breakthrough for her career.

As she stormed out of the gallery and down the road her blood was boiling and her head was spinning so fast she couldn’t even figure out where she was going. She felt so used and so stupid. How could she have really thought that a prestigious gallery owner like Dante Wallace would be interested in her paintings? She should have known there was an ulterior motive.

Clarke was so consumed in her anger that she didn’t notice the girl walking towards her until it was too late. Her body crashed in to something and she felt hot liquid spill down her front, burning her chest.

“Shit! Fuck! Mother fucker shit fuck!!” she yelled, jumping around and trying to relieve the painful burning by taking off her top.

When she had calmed down she realised what must have happened. She had bumped in to someone and had spilled their drink. She looked up to say sorry but the words got caught in her throat.

Staring at her with piercing green eyes filled with anger was the girl from the coffee shop.

“Hold on Indra, I’ll have to call you back” she said in to her phone as she looked coldly at Clarke.

The girl had been holding two cups of coffee and Clarke had evidently managed to knock both of them out of her hands and caused half of the contents to fall on her and the other half on the poor girl.

“I’m…I’m really sorry!” Clarke stammered as she moved forward to try and help the girl with the mess that was down her top.

The girl swatted at Clarke’s hands and moved backwards, clearly not wanting to be touched.

“You should learn to be more careful,” she snapped at her.

“Hey! We knocked in to each other; you clearly weren’t looking where you were going either!” Clarke retorted, her anger now coming back with a vengeance.

The girl cocked her eyebrow at Clarke, much like she had at the café only a few hours earlier and Clarke could have sworn she saw a ghost of a smirk play across the girl’s lips. But as soon as she saw it, it was gone. Replaced with a sneer, and Clarke told herself she must have imagined it.

“I was attempting to be careful with my drinks whereas you were being reckless and not looking where you were going. There is a difference,” the girl said. Her voice was calm but her eyes were flashing with annoyance.

“Well I said sorry, didn’t I?” Clarke replied, still angry and annoyed.

Who did this girl think she was? Just because she was pretty, and seemingly rich and smart and successful, it didn’t mean she was any better than Clarke. And the blonde was just about to say this to the girl when she noticed that the brunette had her phone back to her ear and was speaking to the person on the other end.

“Sorry Indra; a highly inept member of the public has just bumped in to me, causing our drinks to spill all over my top,” she paused as she listened to this Indra person speak, then continued, “Yes I’m afraid I am going to have to go home and change. I cannot meet him like this. Please explain to him why I will be late and offer my apologies. Thank you.”

The girl cut the call off, and put her phone back in her bag, not once looking at Clarke.

“Clarke.”

The blonde didn’t know why she said it. Why was she telling this bitch her name? She should be trying to get as far away from her as possible, and praying to any and all gods in the sky that she would never come back to Arcadia again.

“I’m sorry?”

“Uhm…” Clarke stammered slightly before composing herself. “Clarke. That’s my name. Just in case you ever want to bitch about me again to your friends. You can call me Clarke, rather than the inept member of public.”

Once again Clarke was sure she saw the girl smirk slightly, but once again it was gone in the flash of an eye. The girl looked at Clarke with an intense gaze; as though she was trying to read her mind or figure out a particularly difficult math problem.

Finally she looked away. And finally Clarke could breathe again.

“I shall be expecting a free cup of coffee when I am next in Arcadia,” the girl teased before she turned to walk off.

Clarke stared at the girl as she walked back the way she had come, clearly going back home to change her now spoilt clothes. She hadn't expected her to say anything to her, let alone tease Clarke like that. Was it teasing? Clarke was sure that the girl's tone had been light and playful, but was she even capable of being playful? It must have been Clarke's imagination. The girl wasn't teasing, she was being rude. Demanding a free drink because she blamed Clarke for her spilling the one she had. That was definitely it.  

Oh, and my name is Alexandria," the girl called out to Clarke, "but I’m sure you already knew that,”

This time Clarke was certain of the smirk on Alexandria’s lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know we haven't had much clexa interaction and we've not even seen much of lexa but i really want to build up the characters and the baseline of the story and not rush in to things. 
> 
> next chapter is going to be lexa's pov so don't worry, we will be learning a lot more about her and her life.
> 
> i have a tumblr (who doesn't) so if you wanna watch me cry over commander lexa and loads of other lesbians then feel free to follow me @ cosimaniehuas.tumblr.com


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you again to all the people who left a kudos and/or a comment - it means more to me than you could ever know.
> 
> This chapter is from Lexa's pov and we learn a lot about our awkward gay bean! 
> 
> There's a distressing scene with mentions of blood and death so if you want to ignore that then don't read the part in italic.

Due to her extremely busy schedule, it was weeks before Alexandria next had the opportunity to return to Arcadia. Alexandria was a lawyer, and a very hard working one. She worked at a firm called Polis & Co, where she was the youngest qualified lawyer, and one of the most successful. She had only passed her bar exam a few months ago, and had already taken on 5 cases - all of which she had won.

Polis & Co was owned and run by her uncle Titus. In his day he had been a very well-known and successful lawyer, but these days he preferred to stay out of the court rooms and instead run the firm from his office. Alexandria had most definitely been pushed to become a lawyer by her uncle. He was a highly ambitious man who wanted to achieve all he could, but also ensure that those he invested time and effort in also did well.

Alexandria was currently working on a case alongside her colleague. It was a high priority case, and also very high profile, which meant that Alexandria was not being allowed to work on it by herself. Part of her was annoyed, as she knew she was capable of winning the case, but she also understood that it was safer to work with someone more qualified and experienced. Indra, the woman she was working alongside, was definitely both of those things. She was known as the ruthless slayer as she did not care who she hurt in the process of winning her case. And of course because she absolutely slayed!

The two had been working non-stop for the past two weeks, and Alexandria was exhausted. Indra had been going over one of their witnesses’ testimonies for the fourth time, when Alexandria snapped. She couldn’t stay in that stuffy room, looking at all those notes and pictures, and going over their ideas and plans again and again, for another second. So she had stood up, muttered something about needing air, and escaped from the hell hole.

She hadn’t even realised that her feet were taking her to the café until she was right outside of it. She wasn’t quite sure why she loved this place so much, but for the last few months she had been coming here at least twice a week. She appreciated how quiet it was, and how she was able to sit in a corner by herself and get some work done in peace. The very attractive staff that worked there had nothing to do with it of course.

As she walked through the door she instinctively looked around for Clarke, but she couldn’t see her by the register or by any of the tables near the door. Alexandria sighed slightly, berating herself for being so silly. Why was she down hearted simply because the blonde was not there? She was not a child with a school girl crush. She needed to stop being so immature about it.

“Hello, what can I get for you today?” a boy Alexandria did not recognise asked her as she reached the counter.

The boy was short, with kind eyes and a broad smile. His hair flopped down over his eyes and it made him look rather childlike. But in a nice way - it made him seem innocent and pure.

“A chai tea,” Alexandria responded.

“Anything else?” the boy asked politely.

She eyed the various foods on display and longed to taste the delicious looking carrot cake, but she knew that such foods were bad for her. Bad for her body, bad for her brain. That’s what her uncle had always told her and she agreed. A carrot cake would do her no good. There was a low fat yoghurt waiting for her back at the office, and so she ignored her grumbling stomach and shook her head.

“If you would like to sit down, I can bring your drink over to you. We are having a slight problem with the machines today but I will make sure your order is ready in just a few minutes.”

Alexandria nodded silently and made her way over to a table in the corner. She sat down and sighed quietly, rubbing her temples as she felt a migraine coming on. She pondered whether she was working too hard, pushing herself too much, and that one day soon she may end up having a break down. But her uncle’s words rang in her head.

 “ _You will not achieve greatness if you do not put everything you have in to your career. There is no such thing as working too hard. That is an excuse weak people use when they desire to be lazy.”_

Yes, thought Alexandria, there is no such thing as working too hard. And she was no way a lazy or weak person. There was nothing weak about her. She was strong and fierce and ruthless. She did not give up.

The girl was so deep in her thoughts that she never noticed the boy bringing her the drink she had ordered. Unfortunately for her, she also didn’t notice him tripping up and the mug of hot tea go flying through the air and by the time her brain cottoned on, it was too late. The drink was all down her top and she was scolded by the heat.

“Oh my gosh!” the boy exclaimed, worry and sincerity obvious in his voice. “I am so sorry. I am so so so sorry. It was all my fault.”

“Oh I am more than capable of deducing whose fault it is,” she snarled at him.

The boy looked terrified at the way Alexandria was glaring at him. His hands were shaking and sweat was starting to drip from his hairline down his face.

Suddenly there was a gasp, followed by a chuckle.

Alexandria snapped her head to the side to see who was daring to laugh at her misfortune. Her gaze landed on twinkling blue eyes.

“Oh wow, this is seriously becoming too much of a habit. I’m starting to think you have a secret kink for having hot drinks thrown at you,” the girl chuckled as she eyed the scene before her.

Alexandria glared daggers at the girl before turning to the boy and demanding a new drink.

Once he had scampered off Clarke moved to stand in front of her. “You shouldn’t be so rude.”

“I was not being rude. He spilled a scolding beverage all over me. That is the second time in two weeks that an employee from this coffee shop has done so.”

“Okay fair enough. You still don’t need to be rude though,” Clarke responded. “Especially to Monty. It’s his first day here and he’s really nervous, and also really nice.”

“I’m not sure why his personality makes him exempt,” Alexandria stated before moving her belongings to the next table along and sitting down.

Clarke rolled her eyes and she could feel her anger starting to rise. Monty was probably the sweetest and most genuine guy she had ever met, and he definitely didn’t deserve to be shouted at for a simple mistake. She knew this Alexandria woman was a bitch. How could she have spent the last two weeks wondering if maybe she had judged her too quickly? Just because she had offered Clarke her name, didn’t mean she wasn’t an asshole!

“Is everything okay here?” Jaha was suddenly by their side, and looking at Alexandria with such fake kindness it made her annoyance flare up even more. 

“Well actually not really,” she said. She was about to tell this man, who she was sure was the manager of the café, all about the drink being spilled and then for good measure she was going to tell him how his employee Clarke was being rude and telling her off for being annoyed, rightfully so, regarding said spilled drink. But as she looked up and locked eyes with Clarke, she faltered.

The blue eyes that looked back at her were full of panic, and suddenly Alexandria wanted nothing more than to wipe that fear from her eyes and replace it with happiness and joy.

“I’m terribly sorry, is Clarke here bothering you?” Jaha’s voice broke the spell, and Alexandria tore her eyes from the girls and looked back at the man standing in front of her.

She put on her best smile before saying, “No not at all. It was a simple misunderstanding regarding the bill. You see I have already paid for my drink, and Clarke was simply unaware of this, but we have sorted it out now.”

“Is this correct?” Jaha turned and looked at the blonde.

“Uhm, yeah. Yeah totally. She uhh paid and I didn’t know but yeah it’s all okay now,” Clarke stammered.

Jaha seemed satisfied with this, and so he nodded his head before walking off. Alexandria could feel Clarke looking at her, but she refused to meet her gaze. She knew that the blonde was wondering why she had covered up for her like that and she didn’t want to have to try and explain herself because the truth was she didn’t know either.

“Thank you Alexandria,” Clarke said, finally breaking the silence.

“What would be the point of making you and your friend Monty lose your jobs?” she replied. “How would I get my free drink then?”

Clarke smiled. She wasn’t used to this side of the girl. She always seemed so stoic and uptight, as though she had never laughed in her life. And yet here she was, being funny and considerate. Clarke loved it.

“If you don’t mind Clarke, I really should be getting on with my work,” Alexandria said after a few beats. She couldn’t have the girl staring at her with those eyes and that smile. It made her heart do funny things, things she hadn’t felt in a very, very long time.

“Oh right of course, sorry Alexandria,” Clarke said, blushing slightly.

“It’s okay Clarke. And please, call me Lexa.”

She wasn’t sure why she had said that to Clarke. Nobody called her Lexa. Her parents used to before they died, and her sister used to before they grew up and grew apart. And of course Costia. Costia used to call her Lexa, and it was the most beautiful sound in the world.

Lexa shook her head, forcing those thoughts out of her head. It did not do well to dwell on the past. She was here in the present and Costia was gone. There was no point crying over what had happened. Love was weakness, and it always will be. Costia had made her weak and if she wasn’t careful, Clarke would make her weak all over again. And Lexa refused to be weak. So she looked up, ready to put the façade back in to place, when she caught sight of the smile emanating from the blonde and suddenly she knew it was too late. She was already screwed.

* * *

 

“Alexandria, are you prepared for the meeting with our client?”

Lexa looked up from her computer and watched as a man entered her office and sat down on the chair in front of her.

“Yes Titus, I read all the files you sent me last night. Indra and I are both more than ready,” she replied.

“Good. Mr Miller is a very wealthy man and so it is vitally important that we win his son’s case,” Titus said before fixing Lexa with a stern look. “If you mess this up Alexandria I will not be happy.”

Lexa felt anger rising in her, and she had to work hard to keep her face neutral and her voice calm as she replied, “Do not worry Titus, everything is in hand.”

Titus simply nodded his head and then walked out of the room. As soon as he was out of her office Lexa opened her top drawer and took out a small medicine bottle. She opened it and took no time in popping two of the small white pills in her mouth and washing them down with the water on her desk.

The pills weren’t a problem. Lexa constantly told herself this, and she was right. Why would they be a problem? It wasn’t like she was dependant on them, and they were prescription medication so it was all legal. She wasn’t weak. It was just that sometimes it felt as though her chest was imploding in on itself and she couldn’t breathe properly. That’s all. And the pills made her head stop swimming and her breathing return to normality, so what was the harm in taking them?

She was only keeping it a secret from Titus and Indra and every other person in her life because she knew they would get the wrong impression. They would be worried. Not about her; nobody cared enough to be worried about her. They would be worried that she was weak, that she wasn’t able to do her job, and Lexa couldn’t have that. Her job was everything. Her love, her passion, her only reason for living.

She was aware how depressing that sounded. She had no friends, no one to warm her bed at night, no one she loved. No one. And so her work was everything. Others may find that sad, but it was just the way Lexa liked it.

She closed her eyes as she felt the effects of the pills kick in, and smiled slightly to herself before getting back to work. It was another few hours before she was interrupted again - this time by Indra.

“Mr Miller is here,” the woman stated, not bothering with pleasantries. “Time to head to the conference room.”

Lexa stood up and followed Indra to meet their client. She wasn’t nervous; she and Indra had worked hard and had everything planned and sorted. But she still felt a slight tightening in her chest and she momentarily wondered if she should have taken another pill.

There was no time to ponder over it though and so she forced herself to stay calm and collected as she walked in to the meeting.

“Good afternoon Mr Miller,” she greeted politely as she shook hands with a handsome looking man. He had dark hair with hints of grey here and there, and his eyes were youthful and full of life.

“Good afternoon,” he replied, shaking her hand. “Please, call me David.”

 “It’s a pleasure to meet you David. My name is Alexandria, and this is my colleague Indra,” Lexa replied as she gestured for him to sit down.

After all the pleasantries were over Indra got down to business.

“So, as you know we are both representing your son. We have been working tirelessly over the past few weeks and have both come to the same conclusion,” she paused, looking at Lexa momentarily. “We believe your son needs to plead guilty.”

“I’m sorry but that’s not a possibility,” David Miller stated without missing a beat.

He looked at both of them and spoke clearly and firmly, “My son is not guilty. He had no idea what his two friends were doing or what they were involved in, and he left as soon as he realised. It wasn’t until the next day when it was all over the news did he even know about the young girl.”

There was a moments silence before Indra replied, “This is the response we expected from you Mr Miller, and so while we do believe that Nathan’s best option is to plead guilty, we know that you would never agree to it. Therefore, we have come up with the next best thing.”

David looked relieved and extremely thankful at this news. He smiled slightly at the two women and listened intently to their plan.

* * *

As Lexa left the office that day she could feel another migraine taking over. The meeting had been long and intense. David Miller had not been as easy to persuade as they had originally presumed and so a lot of debating and give and take had to be done, which had not left Lexa or Indra particularly happy. They had worked so hard to come up with a plan they were certain would work, and yet David had refused many aspects of said plan, and now they had a lot more work to do in order to make it perfect again.

The first thing she had to do was to draft up an opening statement. The case started in a week’s time and suddenly Lexa felt unprepared and anxious. She decided to write up a draft of the statement the moment she got home. Sleep could wait when there was work to be done.

Less than twenty minutes later Lexa was sitting on her couch in her large apartment with a glass of wine in one hand and a pen in the other. She was more than half way through her draft and she could feel her eyes drooping. She forced herself to fight through the exhaustion and at least finish the end of the paragraph before she gave in to sleep. For a few more minutes she powered on, but before long her mind was losing focus and she could hardly see the words in front of her. Her thoughts were drifting away to happier things. To a summers night filled with laughter and kisses and love. Suddenly her now empty glass of wine was dropped on to the carpet and her eyes were closed as she fell in to a deep sleep.

 

_Lexa felt on top of the world. She never knew life could feel this good, that she was capable of being so happy, and yet here she was – giggling manically as she chased a girl down the road._

_“Costia slow down!” she wheezed out between laughs. “You know I’m nowhere near as fit as you.”_

_The girl ahead of her slowed down and waited for Lexa. As Lexa caught up with her she grabbed her around the waist and held her close._

_“Sorry babe, thought you might need the exercise,” Costia laughed as she felt Lexa collapse slightly in her arms._

_“There are many more enjoyable forms of exercise Costia. Ones I would much rather partake in with you!” Lexa whispered sultry in her girlfriend’s ear._

_Costia laughed again, pushing Lexa off of her. “You’re so horny Lexa!”_

_Lexa simply shrugged. What was the point in denying it? Costia set her on fire. She made her skin tingle and her knees go weak with just a simple kiss or a smouldering look. Lexa had always thought she was weird and a little bit broken for never feeling that urge to do anything with any of the boys who had tried it with her. She had never felt weak in the knees over a boy, never been excited when a boyfriend kissed her, never dreamt about being fucked by Chris Hemsworth like all of the other girls at her school._

_Of course she wasn’t broken, just a bit different. She was 15 when she realised the truth, realised that it wasn’t that she didn’t want sex but that she just didn’t want sex with a boy. Her uncle Titus had always been loud and brass with his opinion on homosexuality and so when Lexa realised she was gay, she never told anyone and she never acted upon it._

_Until Costia. Costia was special, Costia made everything okay. She made Lexa happy for the first time in her life, and she made her believe that it wasn’t immoral. That being gay wasn’t wrong because how could her feelings for this beautiful and spectacular girl be wrong?_

_“Only for you babe,” Lexa smiled at her girlfriend._

_Costia smiled back and linked their hands together before continuing down the road. “Well as much as I would love for you to take me right here and right now, I’m not so sure all the passers-by would be quite as thrilled.”_

_Lexa looked around and realised that there were a few other people on the street. Not many, as it was about 2 in the morning, but enough for it to be absolutely wrong for her to start humping her girlfriend. No matter how insanely sexy she looked._

_The two girls continued walking, their hands linked tightly together, as they talked about the film they had just watched. They debated over the ending, Lexa saying that the death of V was needed and the movie would be highly lacking had he survived, whereas Costia argued that sad endings made her sad! Lexa smiled warmly at this, deciding that this girl was too good to be true. The love she felt for Costia was overwhelming and scary and intense, but at the same time it felt so right. Costia made her feel like life was more than about just surviving. She made Lexa believe that maybe she deserved to be happy._

_“I love you,” she blurted out, making Costia stop mid rant and turn to look at Lexa with wide eyes._

_Lexa saw the shock in Costia’s face and suddenly she felt stupid and foolish. Why did she say that? She should have kept quiet because she’d made it awkward and of course Costia didn’t love her back. Why would she? Why would anyone?_

_Suddenly there were lips on her own and she realised Costia was kissing her. Ever so softly and gently. Just as Lexa was about to reciprocate, she felt Costia pull back. The girl looked Lexa in the eyes and smiled happily as she caressed Lexa’s face softly._

_“I love you too Lexa,” she whispered with so much intensity and passion it made Lexa truly believe her._

_They stood there, staring at each other with tears in their eyes for several moments before Costia started laughing._

_“We are so sappy!” she said as she wiped the happy tears from her eyes and pulled Lexa along with her as she continued walking._

_Lexa was smiling so wide she thought her face was going to break, but she didn’t care. Her hand was entwined with the girl she loved and who loved her back. Nothing could ruin this moment._

_Suddenly the world around her went black and she couldn’t see or hear anything. When the colour returned she was standing a few feet away from Costia, watching in horror as a man grabbed her from behind._

_“Costia!” Lexa tried to shout, but no words came out. She tried to run towards her girlfriend, but she couldn’t move. Her legs were stuck to the ground and her voice wasn’t working. All she could do was stand there and watch. She watched as the faceless man pulled out a knife and plunged it in to Costia’s side. She watched as the man ran off, a sneer on his unrecognisable face, and left her beautiful girlfriend dying on the ground. Lexa was crying and screaming and shouting at the top of her lungs but nothing was coming out of her mouth. She couldn’t save Costia. She was too weak._

 

A loud buzzing noise woke Lexa from her dream with a start, and she sat up quickly, looking around for Costia. She could still save her. She wasn’t gone yet. If only she could move, she could save her. But as Lexa looked around, and as her state of awareness grew stronger, she realised Costia wasn’t there. It had been a dream. And she was too late. Several years too late.

The buzzing that had woken her up had started up again, and so Lexa looked around for her phone. She found it on the floor next to her wine glass. She saw her sister’s name on the call screen and sighed exasperatedly as she picked up her phone.

“Yes Anya?” she provided as a greeting.

“Hello Alexandria, lovely to hear from you too,” her sister replied sarcastically.

“Anya it’s 2am why are you calling me?” Lexa asked, in no mood for small talk. Or any talk at all for that matter.

“Shit. Time differences and that,” Anya apologised. “Thought you would be up and working anyway.”

“In that case you assumed incorrectly,” Lexa said, “because I was fast asleep.” She left out the part about her bad dream and how really Anya had done her a favour by waking her up from it. Her sister didn’t need to know about any of that.

“Well I’m sorry, okay? I was just calling to make sure you’re still picking me up from the airport next week. I’m sorting my schedule out and finalising all the details of the trip.”

“I said I was picking you up and therefore I will be picking you up.”

“Right okay. Awesome.”

“Brilliant.”

A long silence followed this interaction. Both girls refusing to be the one to break it, until finally Lexa couldn’t take it anymore.

“Is that all? Because I would very much like to go back to sleep now.”

Lexa heard a sigh on the other end of the phone before Anya responded. “Yes that was all I wanted to say.”

“In that case goodnight Anya,” Lexa said.

“Goodnight Alexandria,” came the reply.

Lexa hung up. She refused to dwell on the fact that her sister had sounded sad about Lexa’s shortness. The two girls were hardly close and so it really shouldn’t have surprised Anya that Lexa wasn’t up for a chat at two in the morning.

She shakily got to her feet and walked to the bathroom. The dream she had had before Anya’s phone call came rushing back to her. The image of Costia’s face scrunched up in agony was burning painfully on Lexa’s mind, and she felt tears trickle down her face. She angrily wiped them away as she looked at herself in the mirror. Her face was pale and her eyes held no sign of life. _That’s how it should be_ she thought to herself. She didn’t deserve to live when Costia was gone. But if she had to be alive in the physical sense, then at least she was dead inside.

Lexa could still see the blood pouring out of Costia’s side and the feeling of guilt was churning in her stomach, and before she could stop herself, she was doubling over the toilet and puking her guts out.

It was several minutes before she could stop. She laid her head on the toilet lid and revelled in the way it cooled her down. She managed to get her breathing back to normal, and then she stood up and brushed her teeth. She refused to look in the mirror as she knew the hatred she would feel towards herself and the guilt she would feel at the sight of her very much alive face would push her over the edge and there would be no coming back from it. Instead she headed to the kitchen and grabbed a glass of water and two sleeping pills. There was no way she was going to let herself have any more dreams that night.

The next morning Lexa woke up feeling a lot more rested than she had in a long time. Sleeping pills would do that for you. As she got up and ate breakfast she refused to dwell on the dream from the night before. She kept her mind busy by doing the crossword in the paper and finishing off her opening statement. She didn’t need to be in the office that day as all she had to do was sort out all the paper work and the statements and testimonies for the upcoming case. However, Lexa knew she couldn’t sit in her house and work. She was already feeling uneasy. Her thoughts were drifting to last night and the tell-tale tightening of her chest was making her feel nervous.

An hour later she was walking through the door in to Arcadia and the first face she saw was Clarke’s. It shocked her how instantaneously she felt a sense of calm wash over her whole body. Lexa looked at the girl as she served a customer, and she found herself marvelling at how beautiful she was. Clarke turned to look at Lexa then, and a smile broke over her face.

“Hi Lexa!” the blonde called and waved happily at Lexa.

Lexa waved back awkwardly and walked towards her, highly aware of her arms and how much they were swinging. Why were they swinging so much? Did they usually swing this much? She held them close to her side but then thought that it would probably look unnatural so she loosened them again and forced herself to stop focusing on her stupid arms.

“Hello Clarke,” she greeted once she reached the girl.

“Hey, you okay?” Clarke asked sincerely.

“I am yes. How are you?” Lexa replied.

Clarke sighed before responding, “Yeah okay I guess. Just tired, you know? Starting at 8 is a killer!”

Lexa nodded but didn’t exactly empathise. She was usually up at half 5 and at the office by 7 - and she liked it. She liked that not many people were awake and so she didn’t have to make pleasantries with anyone. But Clarke needn’t know this.

“Chai tea?” Clarke asked as she started to make the drink.

Lexa was taken aback. How did Clarke know that? Sure, it was what she usually had but Lexa never imagined that Clarke would have picked up on it.

“Oh uhm yes please. Thank you.”

“Don’t look so surprised,” Clarke laughed. “I’m a waitress so it’s my job to notice these things. And I’m good at my job.”

Lexa cocked an eyebrow at this, remembering the hot coffee Clarke had spilled all over her.

“I wasn’t at work when I spilled that drink on you,” Clarke said as though she could read Lexa’s mind.

The brunette smiled slightly at this. “I guess that is true.”

Clarke smiled back at her before handing her the tea.

“Thank you Clarke,” Lexa said politely and turned to find a table to sit at.

“Hey!” Clarke called out. “Stay here. You can sit on one of the stools there – you don’t have to sit by yourself in the corner.”

Lexa considered the offer for a moment before deciding that there was no harm in sitting by the counter. She would still be able to get her work done. Plus the view would be better.

“Okay,” she said as she sat down.

Clarke left her to get on with her work, and Lexa tried incredibly hard to focus on the paper work in front of her, but she couldn’t help looking up every minute and watching the blonde interact with other customers and make drinks and clean the counter. Everything she did was mesmerising and Lexa was in awe. Before she could look away and at least pretend to be working, Clarke looked at her and smiled warmly. Lexa snapped her eyes back to her work and attempted to hide her face so Clarke wouldn’t see the blush that was creeping over her face.

Seconds later the blonde was in front of her and talking to her about one of the customers she had just served.

“Honestly Lexa he is such a pervert, it makes me wanna hurl!”

Lexa looked for said customer and saw an old man with grey hair smiling grossly at Clarke, and Lexa felt herself getting protective. She told herself to calm down, that the man was harmless and Lexa was pretty certain that Clarke could handle herself.

“Do you get many weird customers?” Lexa asked.

“A few,” Clarke replied. She started laughing as she continued, “There was with one guy who came in a few weeks ago…”

Lexa watched as Clarke told her the story of how a customer had been convinced that Raven was his wife and had tried to take her home and then started crying when she wouldn’t go with him. It turned out that he was high on MDMA and they had had to call the police to get him out of the café. However, Lexa couldn’t focus on Clarke’s words. She was too focused on the way her eyes twinkled as she laughed, how her lips looked so soft, how her hair fell effortlessly on to her shoulders. She was mesmerised. Suddenly she felt Clarke’s hand on her own and she froze. She looked down at their hands on the counter and her heart starting beating like crazy. Clarke was laughing so hard as she was telling her story and her hand must have simply fallen on to Lexa’s, but Lexa didn’t care why Clarke’s hand was there, she just cared that it was there.

Clarke’s hand was causing her own to tingle and goose bumps started to rise up on her arm and all the way to her neck. She tried to calm herself down, to get a grip of herself, but she couldn’t. The feel of Clarke basically holding her hand as she laughed was too good for Lexa to fight, and so she simply let herself feel it. Let herself revel in the moment just this once.

But just as quickly as it started, it was over. Clarke’s hand was back at her side and Lexa’s was left feeling all too cold. She forced herself to ignore the disappointment she felt at the loss of contact, and instead focus on Clarke’s words as she was still talking to her.

“But yeah, I would definitely say the MDMA guy was the weirdest we’ve had,” Clarke finished her story, wiping tears from her eyes as she struggled to get her breath back.

“That is a truly disturbing story Clarke,” Lexa said seriously, “I do hope you and Raven never encounter something like that again.”

Clarke smiled at Lexa as she nodded her head in agreement. “Well yeah, me too!”

“You’ll get to meet Raven actually, if you stick around for a few more minutes,” Clarke continued. “She should be popping by before she heads to work.”

Lexa wasn’t sure if she wanted to meet this Raven. Meeting Clarke’s friends seemed like too much for her. It was bad enough that she was sitting there with Clarke, talking and smiling and revelling in the feel of the blonde’s skin on her own – she didn’t deserve it, and she definitely didn’t deserve to meet more people and possibly enjoy herself with them!

“Oh, no I really don’t want to intrude. Raven won’t want me here ruining her time with you,” she spoke quickly.

“Don’t be silly!” Clarke exclaimed. “She would love to meet you actually. I’m certain of it!”

Maybe it was the slight smirk on the girls lips, or the way her eyes started to twinkle mischievously, but Lexa knew there was something she wasn’t being told.

 “Why do you say that?” she asked.

Clarke laughed slightly before answering. “She’ll kill me for telling you, but she kinda had a crush on you a few weeks ago. She said you were incredibly sexy and she couldn’t keep her eyes off of you.”

Lexa could feel her skin burning and redness spreading all over her face and her neck as she blushed in embarrassment. That was not at all what the brunette had been expecting to hear.

“Oh don’t be so modest Lexa, you must get that kinda shit all the time,” Clarke rolled her eyes as she playfully hit Lexa’s arm.

Lexa gaped at the girl, confusion evident on her face.

“You’re seriously telling me that you don’t know how gorgeous you are?” Clarke asked incredulously.

Lexa didn’t respond, but simply blushed even harder. Was Clarke saying she was gorgeous? Clarke, the girl with piercing blue eyes and deliciously plump lips; her body so sinfully curvy and a husky voice that sent chills down Lexa’s spine – that girl was telling Lexa that she was gorgeous? Ridiculous!

Clarke must have noticed how embarrassed Lexa felt, as she quickly changed the subject.   “Anyway, please stay so my friend can meet you. I promise I won’t let it be weird!”

Lexa didn’t trust herself to talk, knowing that her voice would be weak and flustered, and so she simply shrugged and nodded her head ever so slightly. This made Clarke beam, and Lexa decided she had made the right decision.

For the next hour or so Clarke was busy with her job, and Lexa actually managed to get some of her own work done as well. She was forcing herself to stay focused and not let the blonde distract her anymore. It wasn’t until a voice she vaguely recognised pulled her out of her concentration.

“Yo Griff, guess what who I just fucking saw?”

Lexa looked up to see a girl walking up to Clarke, a smirk on her face as she talked dramatically.

“Only Wick the dick!” she carried on. “Yeah I know what you’re thinking, so what right? Except, get this, he was sucking the face off of a poor girl!”

Lexa recognised the girl and she figured that it was Clarke’s friend Raven - the one who had called her sexy! This thought made Lexa blush once again, but she reprimanded herself for being so silly, and instead tried to give the two girls their privacy as she got back to her work.

It was rather difficult to not listen to their conversation though, as Raven wasn’t exactly being quiet and Clarke herself was laughing loudly at her friend’s story. Lexa figured there was no point in attempting to work and so she gave in and watched the two interact. There was a definite sense of closeness between the two and Lexa wondered how long they had known each other, and whether or not the two were romantically involved. This thought prompted a sinking feeling in Lexa’s stomach and she felt angry at herself for caring. Clarke, though insanely pretty, was not hers. She never would be. Clarke was too pure and full of life whereas Lexa was a tornado who caused havoc and pain wherever she went. The girl deserved so much better than anything Lexa could offer her.

“Oh by the way, look who’s here,” Clarke stated loudly, clearly making sure Lexa was listening too.

The Latina girl turned around and saw Lexa sitting there, a look of shock and embarrassment on her face as she realised Clarke was talking about herself.

“Oh…” Raven started. She didn’t offer a hello or even a smile before turning back to Clarke and muttering something to the blonde.

Lexa couldn’t hear anything the two were saying, but she wasn’t clueless enough to not know that they were talking about her. It made her incredibly uneasy, and she wanted nothing more than to get up and leave. But then Raven was turning round again and facing Lexa, this time with a smile on her face.

“So you’re not bitch,” she stated with a grin.

Lexa was highly confused at this. Why would Raven have assumed that she was a bitch? And what had made her change her mind?

“I see you’re confused,” the girl continued. “Let me elaborate…”

“Not necessary Raven,” Clarke interrupted, giving her friend a deathly glare.

Raven laughed and held her hands up in mock surrender. “Sorry princess.”

“Don’t call me that you bitch,” the blonde replied, this time with a pinch of genuine hostility.

“Shit sorry, kinda just slipped out,” Raven apologised.

The blonde shrugged it off, and just like that they were okay again. No more animosity or bad feelings, and both girls had grins on their faces as they turned back to Lexa.

“Raven, this is Lexa,” Clarke introduced them. “And Lexa this is my best friend Raven.”

“Good morning Raven,” Lexa greeted her politely.  

“Lexa?” Raven asked, slight confusion in her voice. “A few months ago you said her name was Alexandria.”

“Oh well yeah her name is Alexandria but she prefers Lexa,” Clarke explained, a slight blush rising up on her cheeks.

Lexa itched to deny this. She didn’t prefer being called Lexa, it was just that she hadn’t wanted the blonde to call her by the same name that all the other people in her life did. It would mean that Clarke was meeting the serious and stoic lawyer, rather than the girl she really was inside. But there was no point in explaining this to either girl and so she simply smiled ever so slightly at Raven.

“Okay well fair enough,” Raven responded. “So, Lexa, what’s your story?”

“Excuse me?” she asked, obviously not understanding the question.

“Your story. You know; where are you from, what are your hobbies and aspirations, what do you do for a living, are you single, are you married, have you got kids. The usual.”

“Oh,” Lexa stammered. She wasn’t used to people asking her such things. Everyone she met these days already knew she was a lawyer, and beyond that they didn’t really care. Her job was everything and it was all that mattered. To her, and to her clients. Whether or not she was single or what her hobbies were, was of no importance.

“You see, Clarky and I love to watch people and give them a story. We both did you and we came up with some very different conclusions,” Raven added as Lexa hadn’t replied yet.

“Yes, I figured you were a business woman. You work in an office and you work very hard,” Clarke piped in.

“While I, who is nowhere near as tedious and yawn inducing, deducted that you are a vigilante!” Raven said happily.

“A vigilante?” Lexa questioned, sure that she had heard incorrectly.

“Yeah. You can’t be a boring business woman, it’s just too well boring! And I mean your whole introverted and secluded lifestyle doesn’t fool me,” Raven started to explain. “I know that the only reason you keep yourself to yourself is because you can’t have your enemies know your weaknesses. If they knew you had a boyfriend or a best friend then they would use that against you.”

She finished her explanation with a cocked eyebrow and a massive grin on her face, acting as though she had figured everything out.

Lexa couldn’t help but laugh. Really laugh. For the first time in years she actually let out an honest to God real laugh, and it took her completely by surprise. She quickly covered her mouth with her hand and looked wide eyed at Clarke who was watching her with adoration and amusement. Lexa quickly looked away, not trusting herself to be able to look in to those eyes and not blush for the thousandth time that morning.

She coughed slightly and looked to Raven with a sympathetic look. “I’m extremely sorry to let you down, but Clarke is right. I’m a boring business woman…a lawyer to be precise.”

“Yes! I fucking knew it!” Clarke exclaimed, punching her fist in the air in triumph. “Oh not that you’re like boring or anything Lexa, I uhh didn’t mean that. A lawyer is not boring; I just meant that…oh you know what I meant!” she finished lamely, covering her face with her hands.

Lexa’s mouth pulled in to a wide smile at the sight of Clarke getting flustered and embarrassed. It was an incredibly cute look on the blonde.

“Well it can be very boring I must admit,” Lexa said, trying to ease Clarke’s embarrassment. “I love it though.”

Raven simply hummed and said, “It’s okay Lexa, I understand that you don’t know us well enough to tell us the truth. But one day you will and you, Clarke, will realise I was correct the whole time!”

Clarke laughed and shook her head playfully, and Lexa couldn’t help but smile as well before she looked back down at her notes in front of her and realised she hadn’t even remotely managed to get the amount of work done she should have.

“Speaking of work, I really should get back to mine,” Lexa spoke her thoughts out loud. “It may be boring but it’s got to be done.”

Clarke nodded whilst Raven sang “Still not fooling me!”

However, she still left Lexa to go back to her papers, and instead focused her attention on the blonde. The two girls chatted and laughed while Clarke worked. The blonde would keep filling up Lexa’s drink when she saw it was empty and Lexa thanked her every time, which would always earn her a smile from Clarke. They kept this routine up for another hour or so, and Lexa was impressed with how much she had managed to get done. There was something about the atmosphere in the café that always calmed Lexa down and helped her to concentrate, and today was no different.

When Clarke’s other friend, Lexa thought she had heard Raven call her Octavia a few minutes earlier, arrived, Lexa allowed herself to take a break from her work and listen to the three girls interact.

“So we really need to have it this weekend,” the girl Lexa thought was called Octavia said to her two friends.

Clarke noticed that Lexa had switched her attention to them and she decided to fill Lexa in on what they were talking about.

“Octavia here,” the brunette waved happily at Lexa, “is getting married soon and moving out of our flat in a month.”

“Congratulations,” Lexa said to the girl, who smiled warmly and said a sincere thank you back.

“Yeah well we think she’s a traitorous bitch!” Raven exclaimed as she glared at Octavia.

Octavia stuck her tongue out which made Clarke laugh and Raven roll her eyes dramatically.

“Don’t listen to Raven,” Clarke said to Lexa. “We’re actually really happy for O…but we are sad that she’s moving out. We’ve been living together for almost 5 years now so it’s definitely going to be a massive change.”

Lexa was shocked by this. She had no idea that the three girls lived together, let alone that they’d been living together for so long. She imagined what it would be like to live with friends, and to have such a close knit group of people she could enjoy life with, and it made her incredibly lonely for a second.

“So basically we’re trying to come up with a day when we can have a party to celebrate our time together and to say goodbye to O,” Clarke continued to catch Lexa up with their previous conversation.

“I’ve got a really busy few months ahead of me, what we moving and wedding planning and preparing for my new job, which means the only time I’m able to have a party is this weekend,” Octavia explained.

“It’s too soon!” Raven complained. “We need to have a massive epic party, not some last minute bore fest.”

“It will be epic Rey,” Octavia reassured her friend. “I promise we will make sure it’s the most epic party of the century…we just have to get working on the planning ASAP!”

“First thing first is who’s invited,” Clarke decided.

“Well obviously there’s us three,” Octavia began. “Lincoln, Bell, Jasper, which means Maya as well, we can invite Monty as well he seems nice.”

“Hey you should come as well,” Raven suddenly spurted out.

It took Lexa a few seconds to realise that Raven was talking to her and she’s thoroughly taken aback at the sudden invitation.

“Oh,” she said, looking around at the three girls who were all looking at her expectantly. “I don’t know, I mean I wouldn’t want to intrude. Also I have so much work to do over the weekend. I need to look over testimonies and witness statements again.”

“You work way too much,” Raven said decidedly.

“Yeah come on Lexa, you gotta give work a break some times,” Clarke agreed.

“Do you ever not work?” Raven asked her.

“Well of course I do take time off of work…to sleep and eat and exercise,” she said, noticing the way the three girls are looking at her with slight sympathy in their eyes. “I do have a life. It’s just that work is very important.”

“Yes, and so is partying and socialising!” Octavia countered.

“Lexa, you don’t have to come,” Clarke said softly to the girl. “We just think it would be nice. For all of us.”

Lexa looked in to Clarke’s hopeful eyes and she could feel her resolve faltering. Lexa never went to parties, even when she was at college she usually stayed in and only ever went out when Costia forced her to. And since Costia…since the incident, Lexa never even thought about going out for a drink or meeting friends. She had no friends. She didn’t deserve them. But the way Clarke was looking at her, and the thought of letting the blonde down, made Lexa rethink everything she thought about life and about herself.

Maybe she did deserve some happiness, some friends, a good night with nice people who made her feel alive again for the first time in years.

It was this hopeful thought that she replied, “Okay, I’ll come.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for any mistakes, all my work is un-beta'd so please just forgive me for that. 
> 
> please leave comments as i love to hear what people are thinking and feeling - both about the story and about my writing.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> as always, thank you to everyone who left a kudos.
> 
> this chapter is a mix of lexa's and clarke's pov

**11:46 Unknown:** _Hey, it’s Clarke._

**12:01 Lexa:** _Hello Clarke, thank you for messaging me your number._

Clarke had taken Lexa’s number the day before, after the brunette had agreed to go to their house party. Clarke didn’t have her phone on her as she was working, and she was incredibly awful at remembering numbers, so she had promised to text Lexa with her number.

**12:05 Clarke** _No problem, a promise is a promise haha. So, you’re definitely still coming to the party right?_

Lexa read the message from Clarke and faltered slightly. As soon as she had left the café the day before she had started to doubt whether to go or not. It had been a stupid spur of the moment decision and Lexa was now regretting it very much. She needed to focus on her job and the case, not on going to parties with beautiful blonde girls who made her heart beat fast and her head spin when she smiled at her! She contemplated making up an excuse and telling the girl that something at work had come up and so she couldn’t make it, but the thought of letting the girl down was too much for her to stomach, and so she sighed frustratedly before replying.

**12:11** _Yes Clarke, I am still coming to your party. If that is still okay with you of course?_

**12:12** _Of course it is, I invited you didn’t I?_

**12:31** _Technically Raven invited me, but I understand the premise of your argument._

Clarke smiled at her phone as she read Lexa’s reply. The girl used such formal language, Clarke could basically hear Lexa’s voice through the phone, and the blonde thought it was ridiculously adorable.

“Why are you smiling at your phone?” Octavia asked from across the room.

“I’m not smiling at my phone; my face is neutral. This is my neutral face, okay?” Clarke responded defensively.

“Oooh someone’s getting defensive,” Raven piped up, “is it someone special?”

“Fuck off Raven,” Clarke said, swatting away the girl who was now trying to grab the phone from her hand.

“Come on Clarke, just tell us his or her name,” Octavia pleaded, using her best puppy dog eyes.

“O don’t give me that look, you know I hate that look!” Clarke said.

“You only hate it cause it makes you so weak and powerless to my requests,” Octavia teased.

Clarke rolled her eyes and said, “Honestly guys it’s not like that! I’m just messaging Lexa about the party.”

Raven and Octavia looked at each other before turning to Clarke with sly grins on their faces.

“Somebody has a crush!” Raven sang happily.

“I do not have a crush,” Clarke stated adamantly. “You’re the one who was drooling over her less than 3 weeks ago!”

“True,” Raven admitted. “But that was purely physical. I mean the lady has a killer body and face, so it was really just me being a normal red blooded American lady loving lady! What you are suffering from right now is completely different…you actually like the girl.”

“I don’t even know her,” Clarke argued.

“So? You know enough about her to form a crush,” Octavia said knowingly.

“And soon you’ll know enough to fall in love,” Raven joked, earning her a slap from the blonde.

“She’s too serious and resigned for me,” Clarke tried to convince her friends. “I like someone I can have fun with and have a laugh with. She’s too mysterious.”

“Come off it Clarke, we all know you love a bit of mystery,” Raven teased.

“It’s true Clarke,” Octavia agreed. “You do enjoy trying to figure out a puzzle.”

“Just shut up the pair of you!” Clarke snapped at them, making the two girls laugh loudly as they knew they had managed to rattle the blonde.

Clarke glared at her two friends before picking up her phone and stomping away to her bedroom for some peace and quiet.

**12:55 Clarke:** _Oh I’m terribly sorry for getting the details wrong! What are you up to anyway? Don’t say boring work!_

* * *

 

Lexa was in another meeting with David Miller, and this time their actual client, and David’s son, Nathan Miller was present as well. She, along with Indra and Titus, was explaining to Nathan what the strategy was for his court date in a few weeks’ time.

“Therefore, you will need to make sure that you are able to convince your friend Mr Collins to back up your story,” Lexa explained.

Nathan watched her intently as she spoke, clearly making sure he was understanding everything she was saying and letting it soak in to his brain. He nodded once as affirmation that he understood how important this was for him and for the case in general.

“I understand what you are saying Alexandria,” he began, “but I really don’t know if Finn’s gonna help me out.”

“Well we have to make sure that he does,” David said sternly to his son. “I know that a part of you feels guilty because you are the one who introduced him to Mr Murphy, but you cannot think about that now son. Now you need to think about yourself.”

“Your father is correct, Nathan,” Indra spoke to the son. “Without Mr Collins, this case is simply going to be your word against Mr Murphy’s and we can’t promise you that the jury will believe you.”

“Especially given his ethnicity,” David spat out.

“It’s an unfair but very relevant factor in this, yes,” Indra agreed.

“Okay, I get it,” Nathan spoke again. “I’ll reach out to Finn and try to get him to help me out. He is a good guy…just kind of lost his way a little bit. Maybe if I can bring him back to who he used to be then he will agree to it.”

Alexandria nodded at Nathan, clearly pleased with how willing he was to reach out to the boy who basically caused all of this to happen to Nathan. She opened her mouth to continue with their conversation when her phone buzzed on the table. The only people who ever messaged her were the people she worked with and Anya, and considering Anya was currently on a plane to New York for business, and she herself was currently at work, she knew it wouldn’t be a usual person making her phone buzz. Which left only one person. Lexa was never the type of person who had to be on their phone 24/7 and instantly reading a message as soon as it came in, but knowing that it was Clarke messaging her made it extremely difficult for her to ignore it.

“Do you need to get that Miss Woods?” Titus asked. His voice appeared calm but Lexa could hear the sound of disapproval laced in his words.

“No, of course not,” she responded, quickly turning her phone on silent and she tried to get her mind but to the job.

* * *

 

Clarke huffed angrily as she looked at her phone for the fourth time in about two minutes. She wasn’t sure if she was more annoyed at not getting a text back, or at the fact that she was getting annoyed because of no text back. Either way, she was getting annoyed.

It was the day before the party and Clarke was off work, so she decided to try on a few outfits for the next day. She wanted to look good because she loved looking good and knowing that others were looking at her and thinking about how good she looked. But she also wanted to look good for Lexa. She hated that her friends were right, as they most usually were. Clarke had a big massive crush on the brunette, and she wanted to make sure she looked drop dead gorgeous the next time they saw each other. Lexa had only ever seen Clarke in her Arcadia uniform, with her hair up in a messy bun and sweat running down her face from working in the sun all day, so she was more than excited for the girl to witness her in her element!

She tried on a number of dresses until she found a little black number she really liked the look of on her. It was short and left little to the imagination, and she figured that with the right shoes, her legs would look absolute killer. The dress showed enough cleavage to have the girls and the boys drooling – just the way she liked it!

As she stood looking in the mirror, she decided to message Lexa one more time…but first she would need to make herself look a bit more glamourous. She let her hair out of her messy bun and fluffed it up a bit so she was rocking the “just had sex” hair, and she applied the tiniest amount of makeup to ensure her imperfections were covered and her eyes were pronounced more. She took a few snaps with her phone, chose one that looked the best, and sent it to Lexa.

**14:31 Clarke:** _I’m thinking of wearing this to the party…what do you think? x_

**14:31 Clarke: image attached.**

Lexa picked up her phone as soon as she was back in her office on her own and she took no time in opening the messages she had received from the blonde. She smiled as she read the first message but decided to wait until reading the other two before responding.

Her jaw fell open as she opened the image Clarke had sent her. The girl was wearing a tight black dress that had Lexa thinking of all the things she could be doing to the vast amount of skin that was not being even remotely covered by it. She gulped hard and ran a shaky hand threw her hair and over her face as she tried to compose herself. The girl was simply asking for fashion advice, that was all, and yet Lexa was here thinking impure thoughts about her new friend. She needed to get a grip of herself.

Before Lexa could even think about messaging her back, another text came through from Clarke.

**15:02 Clarke:** _What are you going to wear? x_

Lexa was never one to put much thought in to what she wore. She always made sure she looked presentable and pleasing to the eye, but she had never been the type of girl to plan an outfit ahead of time or think about what dress to wear to a party. She would usually just pick something from her closet and pop it on, hoping that it was still in fashion. However, after seeing how amazing Clarke looked, Lexa figured that maybe this one time she should actually put in some extra effort.

**15:03 Lexa:** _I’m terribly sorry Clarke; I have indeed been at boring work. I am just now getting to have a lunch break. I think that dress looks very nice and you should most definitely wear it to the party. I, however, have not yet decided what I shall be wearing. I think I may just have to leave it as a surprise! X_

Clarke basically ran to her phone when she heard it buzzing by her bedside table. She had just been about to go and have a shower, but she decided that messaging Lexa was of much more importance. She once again found herself smiling goofily at her phone as she read the message from Lexa. How someone could be so adorable through a text message, she would never know.

**15:04 Clarke:** _Oh come on Lexa, please?! X_

**15:07 Lexa:** _I’m sorry Clarke, but I honestly haven’t decided what I am wearing. You will just have to be patient ;) x_

Was that a winky face? That was a winky face! Clarke didn’t even have it in her to feel ashamed of the little dance she did to celebrate getting a winky face from the girl she most definitely had a crush on. She decided she should probably give herself some breathing space to calm down though, and so she sent off a quick reply and hopped in the shower.

**15:08 Clarke:** _Fiiiiiine! I’m going to ignore you now and jump in the shower then :( x_

Brilliant! Now Lexa was picturing Clarke wet and naked…just brilliant! She dropped her head on to the table and moaned as she tried to pull herself together.

* * *

 

It was the day of the party and Lexa was pacing around her apartment, dreading the night ahead. Why had she said she would go? She didn’t need this in her life; she needed to focus on work and stop chasing a life she didn’t deserve. However, once again the thought of upsetting Clarke made her stop arguing with herself and just accept the fact that she was doing this.

She still had four hours before the party started and so she decided to go for a shower before she could change her mind again and start pacing around the room again.

Two hours later she was out of the shower and her hair was in a French plait down her back and she was just finishing off her makeup. Lexa didn’t wear too much make up as she liked the natural look, however, she was a sucker for eyeliner and she used it generously. Costia had always said that her eyes were her best feature and Lexa had to agree that her eyes were quite nice and so she liked to make them stand out as much as possible.

The only thing left for Lexa to do was to choose what to wear. She looked through her wardrobe and picked out a few outfits to look at. She held up a long blue dress but tossed it to the side immediately – blue was not her colour. She also discarded a bright red skirt and a pair of black trousers. She didn’t often wear a dress, but today she really wanted to. She wanted to make a special effort. After several minutes she had narrowed it down to two dresses – a black one that was similar to Clarke’s but slightly less revealing, and a long red one that she had worn to the theatre one time years and years ago. However, as she studied both dresses and contemplated which one to wear she realised that neither of them were quite right, and so she decided to call for help.

“Good evening Miss Woods, is everything okay?” a gruff voice answered the phone after the second ring.

“Everything is fine Gustus,” Lexa responded. She wasn’t sure what had made her call her secretary slash bodyguard, but it had been the first person she had thought of to ring, and he was the only person that Lexa knew would help her. Even if it was only because he worked for her.

“What can I do for you Miss Woods?” he asked again, clearly still slightly worried. Lexa hardly ever called him, and definitely not on the weekend or during the evening.

 Lexa had had a different secretary a few years ago, but she had left to work somewhere else and during that time there had been a slight stalking incident with a client who had taken a liking to Lexa while she was still a student helping out at her uncle’s firm. The client had cornered her in the office’s car park one day and had threatened to kill her if she didn’t say she loved him back. Lexa had been more than capable of sorting the issue out herself as she often went to self-defence classes and was a black belt in karate, but Titus had insisted on hiring a new secretary who could double up as a body guard.

“I need a…uhm, well I need a favour,” Lexa answered weakly. She suddenly felt very foolish. Why was she calling Gustus for fashion advice? This wasn’t the dumbest decision she had ever made in her life!

“I am on my way over Miss Woods,” Gustus responded without hesitation, then hung up and left Lexa feeling quite shocked.

No more than 10 minutes had passed when Lexa heard a knock at the door. She had made sure to get out of her towel and put on some decent clothing before the man had come and so she went over and answered the door hesitantly.

“Sorry if this is an odd request Gustus, but I need some…some fashion advice,” she stammered, not looking at him. She knew that in theory he would have to help her as she was his boss, but she still felt silly asking this large muscular man for such a thing.

She chanced a look at his face and was surprised to see that he was smiling warmly at her. “Of course Miss, what is it that you need advice on specifically?”

“Oh well I’m going to…I’m going to meet some uhm some friends, and I can’t quite decide what to wear,” she tried to explain without sounding pathetic.

“Do you have some options I can see?” Gustus asked kindly, moving to sit down on one of the chairs before stopping himself and standing up straight again.

“Please, sit down,” Lexa said as she noticed him faltering slightly and trying to remain as professional as possible.

“Thank you Miss Woods,” he smiled at her again as he sat down.

Lexa nodded slightly before heading to her bedroom and picking out the two dresses she had thought were the best options. She held them up, one at a time, to her body, and looked at Gustus expectantly. The man was clearly pondering and taking it very seriously and for a second Lexa had the urge to laugh at the sight of the man who had a full beard and an arm full of tattoos contemplating which dress what best for her.

“Neither,” he finally stated.

“Sorry?” Lexa asked, dropping her arms to her side.

“They are both very nice dresses Miss Woods, and I know you would look beautiful no matter which one you chose to wear,” he began explaining, “but I just think that this date seems very important and-”

“It’s not a date!” Lexa interrupted, a blush creeping up her neck.

“Sorry Miss, of course I did not mean a date, I simply meant that it seems like tonight is highly important to you and so I think you need an extra special dress,” the man finished.

Lexa agreed with Gustus, but those two were dresses were definitely her best options and so it simply had to be one of them that she wore.

“If you would allow me to leave you for approximately half an hour, I promise that I will come back with a perfect dress for you,” Gustus said as he saw her downcast expression.

“What do you mean Gustus?” she asked. Surely he wasn’t going to go and buy a dress for her.

“Please just trust me Miss Woods,” was all he offered as an explanation.

Lexa looked at the man and figured that she had nothing to lose and so she shrugged her shoulders, Gustus took this as permission for him to help and so he stood up and left.

True to his word Gustus was back at Lexa’s apartment, knocking lightly in her door, in just under half an hour. He walked in and held up a beautiful green dress and smiled excitedly at her.

“Did you go and buy that?” she asked him incredulously.

“No Miss, I am lending it to you. It is my daughters,” he explained.

“You have a daughter?” she asked. She realised that she knew next to nothing about Gustus and it upset her because she knew that the only person to blame for that was herself. She had never even thought to ask him about his family or his personal life.

“I have two daughters,” Gustus corrected. “Nyla is only 16, but Emori is 24 like you.”

“So this is Emori’s dress?” Lexa asked.

“It is yes. Don’t worry Miss Woods, she said it was okay for you to borrow it,” he eased her worries.

Lexa wasn’t sure about wearing someone else’s dress. What if she somehow ruined it? But she didn’t have a better option and the dress did look gorgeous.

“Okay,” she said at last. “I’ll try it on.”

Gustus beamed and handed the dress over to her.

“Oh and thank you Gustus,” she added before turning around and heading to her bedroom to get dressed.

Once she had the dress on she looked in the mirror and was pleasantly surprised at the reflection looking back at her. People had told her she was good looking, but she had never really seen it before, she’d never really looked long enough to wonder if they were correct. She knew her body was pretty good as she made a conscious decision to treat it with respect and so she worked out at least three times a week and she never ate fast food. However, as she looked in the mirror now and saw herself in the green dress that hugged her body in all the right places, and hung to just below her knees; she thought maybe she was quite pretty. She smiled at herself before heading out to get Gustus’ opinion.

The smile on his face as she walked out and awkwardly twirled round for him said all that Lexa needed to know.

“Miss Woods you look radiant,” he whispered softly. “Emori will be so proud to see her dress make someone look as beautiful as you do now.”

Lexa blushed darkly and felt her eyes sting as she blinked back tears. She had never known what it was like to have a father figure who complimented her, and it wasn’t until that moment that she realised just how much she had been craving it.

“Thank you,” she spoke softly, smiling a completely genuine smile at the man.

He nodded his head and replied, “It was my pleasure.”

He then left and Lexa wondered if she was ever going to view the man in the same way ever again. She decided there and then to make more of an effort with him, and to ask him about his family more often; she hated that she hadn’t even thought about him outside of the work place once in her life.

Lexa looked at the time and realised that the party had already started, and so she grabbed her bag and phone and headed outside to hail a taxi.

* * *

 

Clarke, Raven, and Octavia were all ready earlier than they had needed to be, but only because they knew exactly what their friends were like. If they said the party started at 7, then they would arrive at 5, and sure enough at 5:15 they heard a knock on the door.

Bellamy, Jasper and Maya, Monty, and Lincoln were all outside their flat, broad smiles on their faces and several bottles of all kinds of alcohol in their hands.

“Move out the way Griffin,” Bellamy joked as he playfully shoved her to the side. “I’m just here for the single ladies.”

“I’m a single lady,” she pointed out, knowing the reaction she was going to get.

“Ew gross!” he exclaimed in faux disgust. “No offence blondie but you’re really not my type.”

“Plus, he’s basically your big brother,” Octavia added as she gave him a big hug.

“That too,” he agreed as he hugged his sister back.

The Blake siblings were incredibly close. It had been just the two of them for the past 10 years or so, as their mother had died when Octavia was 13 and Bellamy was 18. Since Bellamy was technically an adult, he looked after himself and his sister, and he had been doing so ever since. Sometimes he was a bit too protective and it would really get on Octavia’s nerves and cause the two to have a massive argument, but even she knew that he only did it because he loved her and wanted to take care of her the way her father never did.

Clarke’s dad had died at a very similar time that their mother had, and so when they met after Clarke moved, she and Octavia bonded over their grief of losing a parent, and their friendship grew and grew the older they had got. Bellamy had been wary of Clarke and hadn’t trusted her at first, which had caused the two to have many arguments growing up. But as Bellamy grew older and started attending the local college, he learned that his trust issues were affecting his relationships and he had gone to counselling to help him through it. With a lot of help and hard work, he had begun to trust people – including Clarke. Now, though they still argued a lot if they spent too much time together, the two were a lot closer and pretty much considered each other siblings the same way that Clarke and Octavia did.

Clarke greeted the rest of her friends, and gave Monty and Maya a short tour of their apartment as the two had never seen it before. Soon the drinks were being poured and the music was on, and the party had officially started – almost 2 hours earlier than scheduled!

By half 7 there were at least 30 people in their apartment, and things were getting crowded. The doors to the tiny garden out the back were open and people started to spill out to have a smoke. Clarke joined Harper; a friend of Raven’s from work, outside for a cigarette and was talking to her about the girl’s love life.

“Wait you what?!” Clarke practically shouted, causing a few people nearest her to look round in interest.

“Would you shut up please?” Harper grimaced. “I don’t need the whole world knowing!”

“Sorry, sorry,” Clarke whispered, her face splitting in to a massive grin. “What’s her name then?”

“Stop looking so pleased with yourself Clarke!” she laughed.

“I’m sorry Harper, but like you’re the straightest person I know, and I know some very straight people, yet here you are – telling me that you slept with a girl last night!” Clarke whispered again, making sure no one could hear their conversation.

“Well, sexuality is very fluid,” Harper shrugged.

“Oh trust me, I know,” Clarke agreed. “But usually my gaydar is exceptionally good and I gotta be honest, you never pinged for me!”

Harper laughed loudly at this and shook her head in disbelief. “What about you?” she asked.

“What about me what?” Clarke asked dumbly. “You know I’m bisexual.”

“No I mean, what about your love life? Any guys or girls worthy of being talked about?”

Clarke smiled to herself and thought about Lexa. They hardly knew each other and had only talked a handful of times, and yet Clarke knew she had a serious crush on the girl. She was just about to tell Harper that maybe there might be someone, when she felt someone looking at her from across the room. Her eyes lifted to scan the crowd, and they instantly fell on a beautiful girl wearing a gorgeous green dress that showed off all of her best assets and left Clarke feeling flustered as she imagined what she could potentially be doing to her.

* * *

 

As Lexa walked up to the front door of the address Clarke had sent her earlier, she smoothed out the non-existent creases in her dress and messed with her hair for the tenth time in so many minutes. She wasn’t sure if she was more nervous about seeing Clarke in a social setting where alcohol would be flowing and Clarke would be wearing _that_ dress, or if it had more to do with the fact that she was about to meet a whole bunch of new people and have to make small talk with them. Socialising wasn’t exactly her strong point.

She took a deep breath to calm her nerves and knocked loudly on the door. A few minutes passed and she was about to knock again when the door swung open and a boy with messy hair and a wide smile on his face appeared. He looked quite a bit older than her, but something about him was familiar and she wondered if they had met before. As soon as he saw Lexa his smile dropped from his face and was replaced with a frown.

“Who are you?” he asked.

Lexa was taken aback at his rudeness but she decided to ignore it and answer him politely. “My name is Alexandria, and I am Clarke’s…I’m…Clarke invited me,” she ended awkwardly.

Realisation must have dawned on him as he made an “o” shape with his mouth and his frown lessened, but did not disappear.

“Right okay, I thought your name was Lexa,” he accused suspiciously.

Lexa’s jaw tightened. It was one thing for Clarke to call her Lexa, as she had told the blonde to call her that. And she supposed that Raven and Octavia calling her by that name wasn’t too bad as they seemed like really nice people. This boy, however, did not seem as nice. She knew nothing about him and had never in her life met him before and yet here he was, being more familiar with her than her own family was.

“Lexa is short for Alexandria,” she explained through gritted teeth.

At that moment Octavia’s face appeared over the boy’s shoulder and a wide grin split across her face. “Lexa! Oh I’m so glad you managed to make it. Raven said you wouldn’t show but I had faith.”

Lexa smiled awkwardly at her, not quite knowing what to say to that.

“Bellamy move out of the way,” she ordered the boy. “Come on in,” she gestured to Lexa.

The boy, whose name seemed to be Bellamy, moved out of the way and made space for Lexa to enter the apartment. 

“This is my brother,” she said as she looked at Bellamy, and Lexa realised then why he looked familiar to her. The family resemblance was definitely there.

Bellamy tightly smiled at her then walked off back in to the party. Octavia rolled her eyes and made a gesture as if to say “ _don’t worry about him”_ and she walked with Lexa to a big room where there were many people sitting and standing around; talking, drinking, and laughing. Lexa noticed that a lot of the people were drunk and she wondered if she had got the time of the party wrong.

Lexa looked around the room searching for blonde hair, and it didn’t take her long to find it. Just outside the door, talking to another girl, was Clarke. She was laughing loudly and Lexa felt herself smiling at the sight of a carefree and happy Clarke. At that exact moment, the girl looked over at her and their eyes connected instantly. Lexa offered her a small smile and an awkward wave, which earned her a smile in return and the girl started walking towards her and Octavia.

Lexa raked her eyes over Clarke’s body and she instantly felt her mouth go dry as she watched the way her hips swayed with every step. She was in awe of the piercing blue of her eyes, and she couldn’t help but lick her lips as her eyes fell on the blonde’s cleavage. The dress looked even better in person than it did in the picture that Clarke had sent her the day before, which was quite a feat!

“Hi,” Lexa breathed as Clarke reached her.

“Hi,” Clarke replied softly, smiling softly at Lexa.

They stared at each other for seconds that seemed to go on forever.

The moment was broken by Octavia speaking up. “Lexa, you are about 10 drinks behind everyone else here so let’s go and catch you up.”

“Agreed,” Clarke concurred, and she grabbed Lexa’s hand as she pulled her towards the kitchen.

Octavia made herself a rum and coke and poured Clarke a vodka and lemonade without even having to ask what she wanted. She then turned to Lexa and asked what she wanted.

“Do you have any wine?” she asked nervously, not sure if wine was really something that people drank at parties.

“Of course we do, we’re not animals!” Octavia laughed. “Red or white?”

“Red please,” Lexa answered, relieved that it wasn’t an odd drink request.

Octavia poured her a very large glass of red wine and handed it over, smiling as she did so. Lexa noticed that the girl was almost always smiling, and her smile was so infectious that Lexa found herself smiling back.

The three of them sipped at their drinks and talked about Lexa’s work for a while, before Raven’s loud voice disturbed them.

“Heyy!” she slurred as she held on to Octavia’s arm for support. “You came!”

It was obvious that the girl was drunk, and Lexa noticed that she was even louder when intoxicated than when sober.

“Thank fuck to be honest, cause Clarke was bumming me the fuck out with all her looking at the dumb ass door every single fucking minute!” she continued and Lexa noted that she was also a lot cruder when drunk.

Clarke blushed slightly and said, “Shut up Raven, you’re drunk!”

Octavia laughed lightly but changed the subject by pointing out people in the room and telling Lexa who they all were. “That’s my brother Bellamy who you met at the door. He’s a good guy but quite untrusting and very protective, so if he was off with you don’t sweat about it.”

Raven laughed and said, “Well there’s an understatement if I ever heard one.”

“He’s the total opposite of Octavia,” Clarke said, practically voicing Lexa’s thoughts.

Octavia shrugged and said, “Yeah well people deal with trauma in different ways I suppose.”

Lexa wondered what trauma the girl was talking about, but she knew it was none of her business and so stopped her mind from wandering and thinking up stories in her head.

“Anyway,” Octavia continued, not fazed by the commentary from her friends. “That over there is Jasper and his new girlfriend Maya. I think you’ve seen Monty at the café but if not that’s him over there. Harper is sat on that chair there and she’s talking to Drew and Fox.”

She continued pointing people out and telling Lexa all their names which Lexa was sure she was going to forget in a few minutes but she still tried to remember as many as possible.

“And my fiancée should be around here somewhere,” she muttered, looking around curiously.

Suddenly there was a boo from behind the girls and all four of them jumped slightly in fear.

“For fuck sake Lincoln!” Raven shouted angrily at a muscular man standing by the kitchen table, laughing lightly at their reaction.

Octavia joined in the laughing and went over to the man and kissed him lightly on the lips before smiling up at him. They stood there smiling sweetly at each other, their eyes locked, and it looked as though they were speaking a secret love language to each other with words no one else could even hear. Lexa watched them and felt a twang of pain in her chest as she remembered what it felt like to have someone look at you like that.

“This,” Octavia said, tearing her eyes away from the man but keeping her body tightly pressed against his, “is my fiancée Lincoln.”

Lincoln leaned over and offered his hand to Lexa.

“You must be Alexandria,” he said with a soft voice that didn’t suit his appearance. It surprised Lexa to hear that he had called her Alexandria, as everyone else here seemed to know her as Lexa. She supposed that one of the girls had mentioned that she introduces herself with that name.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you Lincoln,” she replied politely.

“They’ve been together for almost 4 years now and they’re still so sickeningly sweet and affectionate with each other,” Raven complained as she shot them a disgusted look.

“You’re just jealous,” Clarke teased her friend. “We all are to be honest.”

Raven gagged, “Speak for yourself honey, I am more than happy being single.”

* * *

 

Two hours and several drinks later, Lexa was feeling a lot more comfortable surrounded by this group of people she hardly knew. She knew in the back of her mind that she should probably stop drinking as she wasn’t exactly known for being someone who could hold their liquor very well. In fact Lexa was embarrassingly easy to get drunk as she hardly ever drank any alcohol, except for a small glass of red wine after a particularly tiring day. She wasn’t used to drinking spirits, which was pretty obvious as she was swaying slightly and grinning to herself as she sipped on her third vodka and red bull which Raven had thrust in to her hands a few minutes ago.

Lexa was standing and talking to Monty and some other guy, who Lexa thought was called Jason or Jasper or something like that, and she could feel herself losing control of her actions and her thoughts. She hated to not be in control and it was the main reason why she never let herself get intoxicated – that and she suffered from incredibly terrible hangovers.

But at the moment Lexa didn’t really care that she was unable to see clearly or stand up properly without holding on to the chair in front of her. She felt happy and free. Two things she hadn’t felt for the longest time.

“Okay but if you’re seriously telling me that you play World of Warcraft as well as Call of Duty, then I think I may just have to marry you!” the boy whose name Lexa couldn’t quite remember said to her.

Lexa laughed and slapped the boy playfully, “I told you, I haven’t played for a very long time so I don’t think it counts.”

“Oh I’m sure I could convince you to play again,” the boy joked.

“Jasper, you have a girlfriend,” Monty reprimanded his new friend.

“I know!” Jasper sighed. “A girlfriend who is the best and who I love and would never ever cheat on. It’s just…you know! A girl who plays video games is so rare!”

Lexa rolled her eyes at this because while she may not be the most outgoing person, she knew for a fact that there were hundreds and thousands of girls in the world who enjoyed playing video games just as much as boys did.

“What’s the joke?” Clarke asked as she joined the trio.

“Jasper is getting a boner over the fact that Lexa plays World of Warcraft,” Monty explained.

Clarke glared at Jasper and reminded him, much as Monty had, that he had a girlfriend. The boy raised his arms in surrender and muttered something about just having some fun, before he stomped off to get another drink.

The blonde turned to Lexa and smirked, “I didn’t peg you as someone who played video games!”

Lexa shrugged, “I don’t much anymore. I used to play all the time but…well life happened and now I don’t.”

A sadness washed over the girl’s face and Clarke noticed that that seemed to happen quite a lot with the brunette. She would be fine one minute, and then the next she would have a faraway look in her eyes as though she were being transported to another place and time, and her eyes would fill with such sorrow that Clarke had never seen before. But then she would snap out of it as if awoken from a dream and her face would be completely neutral and blank once again.

Clarke longed to understand Lexa, to know why she was so sad and alone in the world. She wished she could learn everything there was to possibly learn about her and from her. To tear down her defences. More than anything she wished she had the power to rid her of the sadness that seemed to control her life.

She knew, however, that this was not possible. Not yet. They hardly knew each other, and Lexa was such a private person that Clarke knew she would never open up to her now. But she held on to the hope that maybe one day Lexa would be able to open up to her and let her take care of her the way she was sure she deserved.

“Gather round! Gather round!” Raven shouted above the music.

Many people paid the girl no attention, as they were too drunk or too preoccupied with other more sexually interesting activities, but Clarke and Lexa walked over to where the girl was standing on a table and making her announcement.

“Most of us are pretty fucked,” she started, earning a cheer from several people, “but none of us are drunk enough!”

Lexa felt like disagreeing; she definitely felt that she was drunk enough.

“So,” the girl continued to shout so people could hear her, “we’re gonna play a round of ring of fire!”

A few people cheered happily, while others groaned and walked off. Lexa turned to Clarke, wondering if the blonde knew what Raven was talking about. Evidently she did, as she was smiling as she shrugged and said to Lexa, “Why the fuck not, right?”

Clarke sat down in a chair and Lexa followed suit, not wanting the girl to realise that she had clue whatsoever what ring of fire was. A few people had refused to partake in whatever game this was, but there were at least 10 people now sitting in a circle on chairs and sofas and laps and the floor.

“So most people will obviously know how to play, but just in case there are a few who don’t know the rules, I shall explain.”

Lexa was extremely grateful for this as she really hadn’t wanted to bring attention to herself by being the only one there who hadn’t got a clue what to do. She watched as Raven pulled up a pack of cards and shuffled them before placing them face down in a circle in the middle of the group of people.

“So, we take it in turns to pick up a card from the circle here,” she pointed at the cards. “I start because I dealt and cause I’m the most important.” She picked up a card and showed the crowd that it was a 4 of clubs.

“The suits do not matter at all, all that matters is the number. I got 4, which stands for whores, which of course means that all of the girls drink,” she explained and pointedly looked at all the girls in the circle.

“Oh I don’t have a drink,” Harper realised out loud.

“Harper, what the fuck is the point of playing a drinking game if you have no god damn drink?” Raven asked dramatically.

Harper stuck her tongue out at her friend before standing up and heading to get a drink. She was back within a few minutes, carrying several bottles of wine, a bottle of whiskey and a large bottle of coke.

“Just in case anyone else runs out of their drink,” she explained, earning a grin and a thumbs up from Raven.

“Okay so assuming that everyone has a full drink, we can start,” Raven continued. “Whores, let’s drink!”

All the girls in the circle took a large gulp of their drink and Raven carried on explaining the game.

“Okay so the rest of the cards are as follows – Ace is waterfall, so whoever picks it up starts drinking and everyone else has to drink for as long as they do. If anyone stops drinking before the person who picked the Ace does, then they have to have a shot of absinthe.”

This earned groans from the circle of people as they eyed the bottle in the middle of the cards.

Oh stop being pussies,” Octavia shouted from where she was sitting on Lincoln’s lap.

“Thank you Octavia, my sentiments exactly,” Raven agreed with her friend before she carried on explaining. “If you pick up a 2 then you get to nominate someone to drink. A 3 means you have to take a drink. We know what 4 is. 5 is thumb master, so whoever picks the card has to point there thumb to the table and the last one to copy them takes a shot. 6 is dicks so obviously the guys drink. 7 is point to heaven, exactly the same as thumb master except that you point to heaven.”

Lexa tried to listen and take in all that Raven was saying but she couldn’t. She wondered for a second if she would be able to understand all the rules had she been sober, but she highly doubted it.

“I know there’s a lot to remember but you’ll pick it up as the game carries on,” Raven finished at last.

She clapped her hands excitedly and motioned for Bellamy, who was sat to her left, to start the game. He picked up a 2 and made Lincoln take a drink. Monty was next and he picked up a 10 which meant someone got to ask him a question and he had to answer truthfully. Turned out that Monty was gay, which surprised Jasper greatly but Raven simply rolled her eyes and offered a “Duh!”

The game kept on going, its purpose of making them even more drunk most definitely working. Lexa was the first to take a shot of absinthe as she had failed to keep drinking after Octavia had picked up an Ace. She really hadn’t wanted to do the shot but knew it was part of the game and so she put on a brave face and tried to act as though it were no big deal, but as soon as the liquid hit her throat she was gagging and coughing, cursing with words she didn’t realise she even knew!

Things started to get more interesting when Clarke picked up a Queen and was dared to give Monty a lap dance. The poor boy looked horrified as she climbed on to his lap and started to sway her hips seductively and push her ass in to his groin. Lexa, who was sat opposite Monty, had a front row view of Clarke’s performance and she felt herself growing hot and her pulse quickening as she watched, her eyes transfixed on the way Clarke was moving her body effortlessly to the time of the music playing through the speakers.

Clarke was having too much fun winding the boy up beneath her and she couldn’t help but giggle at the way he was sitting so stiffly and the way his hands were grabbing on to the arms of the chair he was so awkwardly sitting on. She found the whole scenario incredibly funny, and she looked up at Lexa, expecting to see the girl laughing along with her. But as her eyes landed on Lexa’s she was surprised to see the girl staring at her with pupils blown wide and her jaw ever so slightly open, and she watched, mesmerised, as Lexa dragged her tongue over her bottom lip. Clarke could feel herself getting wet just looking at Lexa watching her in that way, and so she decided to stop the lap dance as she wasn’t sure if she could trust herself to not march over to the brunette and take her right there and then.

Less than half an hour later, Lexa could hardly sit up she was so drunk, but she was having such a good time playing this ridiculous game with these incredible people, and so there was no part of her that thought it would be a good idea to stop drinking.

It was her turn to pick a card and so, struggling greatly, she reached over and pulled up the first card she touched. It was a 10.

“Ooooh a truth,” Lincoln slurred from beside her.

“Me!” Raven shouted, claiming the question for herself.

Lexa laughed loudly at the girl, knowing exactly what she was going to ask. Raven was still adamant that Lexa was a vigilante, and she was sure that Raven was going to use this as a way to finally get the truth out of her!

“No!” Octavia cut in before Raven could get the words out of her mouth. “We all know what you’re gonna ask and we are not wasting this perfect opportunity to learn something interesting about Lexa.”

“My question is interesting,” Raven argued, her lip jutting out in to an adorable pout.

“Asking her if she uses a secret identity to bring down bad guys is not a worthy question Reyes,” Octavia stated with finality.

“I agree,” Monty spoke up.

Octavia smiled at him. “I knew there was a reason I liked you Monty!”

She then turned her attention to Lexa and seemed to be in deep thought about what question to ask. Lexa was drunkenly smiling at the girl, not even remotely worried about what the question was going to be. Had she been sober, she would have been freaking out, because if there was one thing Lexa hated, it was being open and honest about her life. Especially to a group of people she barely knew. However, Lexa was incredibly drunk, and so none of these thoughts were running through her mind.

“Have you ever been in love?”

That did it.

The booze goggles were off. The hazy happiness that Lexa had been enjoying was ripped away and she was left feeling completely sober, as though a bucket of ice water had been tossed over her head.

She couldn’t answer that. Not to these people. Not to anyone. She never spoke of Costia, of the life she once had, and the happiness she had once felt.

Had she ever been in love? Of course she fucking had. Costia had been her everything, her moon and sun; her sky full of stars. But the sun had set and the stars were gone. She had loved the girl with such an intense fire that it had burned her. Her love had ruined her. Ruined Costia. Ruined everything. Her love had made her weak and with a shock she realised that she was being weak again right now by allowing these people in to her life. She had let her guard down. Let these strangers tear down a part of her carefully built defences and she felt so stupid.

Clarke’s interest was piqued as soon as the question left Octavia’s lips and she turned, intrigued, to Lexa. She wasn’t sure what she was hoping for. There was no problem if she had been in love before, Clarke had once believed that she had been in love, but she still couldn’t help the fiery feeling of jealousy as she waited for an answer.

She watched Lexa for a few seconds before she realised that the girl wasn’t simply deliberating her answer, but that she was freaking out. She had that faraway look in her eyes and the sadness seemed to be taking over her whole body, and Clarke realised that maybe this was too much. It was clearly a touchy subject, and as much as she craved to know the answer, she knew it wasn’t fair to force the girl to spill her guts to people she had only met a few hours previously.

Lexa was so lost in her thoughts that she didn’t notice Clarke get up, until the girl started talking.

“I’m bored now,” she groaned. “Come on let’s go.”

Lexa looked up and it took her a second to realise that the girl was talking to her. She was holding out her hand for Lexa to take, and without any hesitation on her part, she grabbed the hand and allowed herself to be pulled to her feet.

A few cries of indignity were offered as the two girls headed to the garden, but they were all ignored. Clarke led Lexa out through the doors and on to the small patio, where she stopped and took out a box of cigarettes.

“Want one?” she asked, offering Lexa the box.

“No thank you Clarke, I don’t smoke,” she replied, eyeing the offending box that Clarke was now opening.

“Me either,” Clarke shrugged. “Not usually anyway, just when I’m drunk.” She lit her cigarette and took a long drag, and sighed blissfully and she blew out the smoke.

Lexa had always hated smoking and being around smokers – it was a disgusting habit that she despised. But watching Clarke as she wrapped her lips around the cigarette and sucked in deeply before blowing out ringlets of smoke, Lexa thought that maybe it wasn’t so disgusting after all. Not that she would ever partake in it.

They stood in silence for a moment, Clarke watching Lexa curiously, and Lexa watching the ants scurry around on the ground beneath them.

It was amazing to Clarke, that this girl standing in front of her was the exact same one as the girl from the café who walked with such authority and had such a presence and aura of importance about her. Now the girl was standing so small, her arms wrapped around herself and Clarke thought she looked a lot like a lost child - fearful and alone.

“I just thought maybe you wanted to get out of there,” Clarke finally broke the silence. She knew she shouldn’t really say anything and the best course of action would to just let it be, but she was drunk and curious, plus she thought maybe it would help Lexa to talk about it.

Lexa looked at Clarke and all she saw in the girl’s face was sincerity, so she smiled ever so slightly and replied, “Yeah I…I did. Thank you Clarke.”

Clarke smiled back at her. “It’s okay. I know how that game can get! I can’t even count the number of times I’ve had to do something or share something personal that I really didn’t want to. So I get it. Plus you’re my guest and I didn’t want you feeling uncomfortable.”

Lexa smiled once again, touched that Clarke had thought of her feelings and actually done something to protect her. It was more than anyone else in her life ever did.

Silence fell over them again, and they both stared out in to the night sky lost in their own individual thoughts.

“Her name was Costia,” Lexa broke the silence.

Clarke turned to look at her, surprised that Lexa was talking about it. She didn’t know her very well, but she could tell that the girl was very private, and so she had never expected her to open up to her about it.

“What happened?” she asked softly. She was expecting to hear a story of a bad break up, or maybe that Costia had cheated. Maybe the girl was simply living in a different state and soon they would be reunited. Clarke wasn’t sure what story she was going to be told, but she definitely had not expected to hear the words Lexa next spoke.

“She died.”

Lexa’s voice cracked as she spoke, and Clarke turned to look at her fully.

“Lexa, I’m so sorry,” she whispered with such sincere emotion it made Lexa’s eyes sting as tears threatened to spill down her face.

She took a deep shuddering breath as she continued to look out at the night sky and trace the stars with her eyes. A small smile played at her lips as she whispered softly. “I think she would have liked you Clarke. You remind me a lot of her.”

She turned and looked at Clarke with glistening eyes and in that moment the only thing Clarke wanted in the whole world was to kiss away all the pain that was so clearly evident on her face and in her eyes. But she knew that it wasn’t her place to so such a thing, and it wasn’t what Lexa needed; what she needed was a friend. She could see how lonely Lexa was and she knew what that felt like. She had been so lonely for years after her father had died, and she understood how it could destroy a person, and so Clarke made a promise to herself right there and then that she would be the greatest friend to Lexa that was humanly possible.

Clarke hesitantly opened up her arms as a tentative invite for Lexa.

Lexa watched as Clarke offered her a hug, and maybe it was the alcohol in her system or the way Clarke was looking at her with such genuine care, but she didn’t even hesitate as she fell in to the girl’s embrace.

She let herself be held by Clarke, and as she breathed in her scent and felt Clarke’s arms tighten around her waist, she wondered if maybe this is what home felt like.

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please please please leave a comment as they fuel me massively and i need motivation to continue this story. even if its just a "cool" or even if its a constructive criticism, any message will do
> 
> follow me on tumblr @ cosimaniehuas


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologise for taking so long to reply - it's a mix of work kicking my butt, not being able to get on my laptop often enough, and just plain old writers block! But all the comments and kudos massively helped me to push through so massive thank you to everyone who left a comment and/or a kudos <3
> 
> So here's chapter 5. As always it is no beta'd so forgive me for any mistakes.
> 
> Enjoy :)

Clarke groaned pathetically as she regained consciousness. She could already feel a headache starting to form and her stomach was turning uncomfortably as she hesitantly opened her eyes, looking around her surroundings and trying to recollect how and when she had got in to bed. She lay there for a few minutes, trying to calm her churning insides and collecting the energy to get out of bed, when she felt movement behind her.

She tried to turn around to see who was in the bed with her but was prevented by the dead weight of an arm slung over her side. There was a huff of disapproval as Clarke turned her body to see who was in the bed with her.

“Raven?” she croaked questioningly as she saw a head of dark hair splayed across the pillow next to her.

“Fuck off,” was the reply.

So, it was definitely Raven in the bed with Clarke. For a moment Clarke had wondered if it had been Lexa, and she wasn’t sure if she was relieved or disappointed to find out it wasn’t her.

Clarke groaned again and decided it was safer for her to get up out of bed than lay next to a hungover Raven who was infamous for puking her guts out the day after a big party. The blonde delicately got up out of the bed and slowly walked to the bathroom where she brushed the taste of alcohol and morning breath away, and washed the worst of her ruined makeup off her face.

“Morning,” she heard a cheery voice call out to her.

She looked round and saw Monty smiling at her from the door of the bathroom.

“Morning,” she croaked. “Why are you not as hungover as I am?”

“I haven’t gone to bed yet,” the boy explained with a wide smile. “Jasper and I stayed up playing Xbox.”

“Fair enough,” Clarke responded as she moved out of the bathroom and in to the living room where Jasper was indeed playing Xbox.

“Hi Clarke,” he greeted, not taking his eyes from the game he was playing. “How you feeling?”

“Shit.”

Jasper laughed. “You shoulda stayed up with us. We had a few joints and stayed up all night. Never felt better!”

“I wish I had. I have never in my life felt so shit,” Clarke complained as she poured herself a glass of water and downed two aspirins before sitting down next to Jasper and leaning her head on his shoulder.

He chuckled loudly and patted her head distractedly. “Listen, I’m really sympathetic to your hangover, but it’s taken us over 3 hours to get to this level and if you make me die now I will have to scream down your ear!”

Clarke gasped in mock outrage. “You wouldn’t dare!”

“Oh he would, and if he didn’t then I would!” Monty replied as he walked in to the room.

“Monty, you are not the person I thought you were!” she said, shaking her head dramatically.

“Sorry Clarke,” he patted her arm as he sat down and picked up a controller, “but this shit is important!”

She noticed a sleeping Bellamy on the floor next to them and questioningly pointed at him.

Monty giggled before elaborating. “He said he wanted to stay up with us and, I quote, ‘hit the bong’, but he took one drag and was out cold for the night!”

Clarke chortled slightly and picked up her phone, ignoring the two boys who were now loudly swearing at the TV as they continued their game.

 **10:09 Clarke:** Morning! Are you feeling as bad as I am?

Lexa woke up to the sound of her phone ringing and she grumbled as she blindly searched for it.

“Hello?” she whispered as she answered the call.

She felt as though her brain was hammering against her skull and she didn’t even dare open her eyes in fear of the sunlight making it a million times worse. She could tell she was in her own bed in her apartment, but she had no recollection of how she had got back from Clarke’s party the night before.

“Alexandria where are you?!” Titus shouted down the phone.

Lexa’s first reaction was to whimper in pain and pull the phone away from her ear.

“Alexandria?” Titus shouted her name again, clearly angry with her for something.

“I’m at home Titus,” she answered his question, unsure why he would care. It was Sunday morning and she had no reason to be anywhere but her apartment.

“I called you four times last night and left you several messages and texts,” he barked. “You need to come in to the office. Right now!”

“Shit okay,” she said as she jumped out of bed, cursing herself as she felt her head going light and her belly turn dangerously at the sudden movement.

She made her excuses to Titus, hoping he at least vaguely believed her, before jumping in the shower and having the quickest wash of her life. She popped two aspirins with a glass of water and ran out of her apartment, deciding to wave down a cab instead of running all the way to work.

Lexa rushed in to the office and was immediately met with Gustus who was holding a cup of coffee for her.

“Thanks Gustus,” she muttered as she took the cup of coffee gratefully from him.

“You’re welcome Miss Woods,” he replied with a smile. “Did you get in to your apartment okay?”

Lexa looked at his questioningly.

“You must not remember,” he responded with a ghost of a smirk on his lips. “Your friend called me and asked me to take you home last night. She said you were adamant about sleeping in your own apartment and so she called me to drive you back.”

Lexa suddenly remembered arguing with Clarke and Octavia about where she should sleep. They had said it was no problem for her to crash at theirs, but she hadn’t wanted to intrude and so she had insisted on being taken home.

“I totally forgot,” she said in embarrassment. “Thank you for that Gustus.”

Gustus smiled warmly and ushered her towards the conference room. She felt her insides churning, and not just from the hangover. She knew Titus was furious with her and she was not looking forward to his wrath, and so she pulled out a bottle from her pants pocket and shook out a pill on to her hand before swallowing it with a large gulp of the hot coffee.  She just prayed that Gustus assumed it was pain relief medication.

Titus was waiting for her, an angry look on his face and a question blazing in his eyes. She moved her eyes from his intense gaze and saw that there were three other men in the room with him. Nathan and David Miller, and a man she did not recognise.

“Good morning gentlemen,” she greeted them, refusing to let her hangover show.

“It’s lovely of you to make it,” Titus stated, an obvious bite in his words.

“I am terribly sorry that I am late,” she spoke to the other three men, “I had a personal emergency.”

It wasn’t completely a lie. The emergency was that she had been too drunk and then too hungover to notice any calls or messages from her uncle regarding this meeting - but the men needn’t know that of course.

“It’s quite alright,” David smiled cordially at her.

Lexa smiled back politely as she sat down and waited to be filled in about why they were here and who the third man was.

“This,” Titus began, gesturing at the unknown man, “is Mr Collins.”

Mr Collins looked like less of a man and more like a boy, with his floppy hair and his chid like grin, and Lexa couldn’t help but instantly dislike him. However, she knew that they needed him to win the case for Nathan, and so, like the professional she was, she smiled at him and greeted him politely.

“Finn’s said he’ll help me out,” Nathan explained to Lexa. “He said he’ll back me up in court and give his testimony.”

 “We appreciate you coming in and helping us with this case Mr Collins, you are doing a good thing here,” Titus said to the man child.

Mr Collins smiled brightly at this; he shrugged his shoulders in a half-assed attempt of appearing nonchalant. “I know. I just knew I had to do the right thing, and so here I am!”

 “Well we are extremely grateful for your co-operation,” Lexa said, only just managing to hide her contempt.

“Please, call me Finn,” he replied with a flirtatious smile that turned Lexa’s already delicate stomach.

“Okay Finn,” he smiled again at the name, “in your own words please tell us what happened on May the 6th of this year.”

“Okay so we, that’s me and Nate and Murphy, were at a bar and we had all been drinking quite a bit when Murphy says he wants a car. We kinda laugh and whatever, but then he’s up and he’s walking outta the place and we’re following him in to the streets. He leads us to a small road, I don’t remember the name of it at all, and he points out a car and says he’s gonna steal that one. Nate says he’s being a dick and I agree but Murphy won’t listen so Nate says he’s not gonna play a part in it and he leaves. I wanted to leave to, I really did,” Finn paused and looked at Lexa with a sort of pleading in his eyes.

“Of course you did, but you didn’t want to leave Mr Murphy on his own because you didn’t know what he might be capable of. It’s completely understandable,” she said. She needed to keep him sweet and on her side, so a little bit of coaxing and flattering were inevitable.

“Right yeah of course,” he agreed, relief flooding his face.

“Please Finn, continue,” Lexa urged him. In reality, the last thing she wanted was for Finn to continue. She was finding it incredibly difficult to listen to Finn recollecting his memories of what had happened that night. She couldn’t listen to someone telling her a story of events so similar to the one she had already heard a few short years ago.  

“So Nate’s left and I stay and we’re at the car and Murphy is breaking in but then some girl starts shouting at us and it turns out that it’s her car and I’m telling Murphy to go, that we need to get out of there but he just smirks and he gets out a fucking gun! A real live fucking gun! And he aims it at the girl and tells her to leave but she won’t and then I dunno it’s kinda a blur but there’s a gun shot and the girl is bleeding and Murphy is running and pulling me with him and he made me swear not to say anything. He said he would get us out of it, that he would sort it so that no one would know it was us.”

Finn was breathing fast as he finished his story, and Indra pushed a glass of water towards him in an attempt to help him calm down.

Lexa wished all it would take to keep her calm was a glass of water. The only thing keeping her from having a break down was the Valium she had taken earlier, but she was certain that she would need another one before too long as she could feel her chest tightening once more.

“Thank you Finn, that really helps us,” Lexa heard Indra say from beside her.

Finn smiled again, but this time it was a lot more shaky, and he turned to look at Nathan.

“Dude, I’m so sorry I didn’t say anything earlier,” he said to his friend.

“It’s okay Finn,” Nathan replied, patting Finn’s shoulder reassuringly. “You’re helping me out now and that’s all that matters.

Titus ruined their bonding moment by getting back to the case and asking Finn some more questions. “Nathan’s fingerprints were found on the gun; do you know how they got there?”

“No, I honestly don’t.”

“Do you know the condition of the girl Mr Murphy shot?”

“I heard she was in a coma.”

“Indeed. She might make it, she might not, and if she doesn’t then Mr Miller is looking at a murder trial rather than assault with a deadly weapon,” Titus looked at Finn with a fierce gaze. “So, you need to be sure that you’re facts are straight and that you are ready to testify.”

“I swear to you I am gonna do everything I can to make sure my friend doesn’t go down for something he didn’t do,” Finn responded and Lexa was surprised to see a fire in his eyes. Maybe he wasn’t such a tool after all.

The meeting continued for over an hour, as they all talked and debated and finally came up with a plan of action. Finn was going to take the stand after the opening statements were made and he was to be kept a surprise witness so that the other side could not plan any questions for Finn, or come up with any holes in the boy’s testimony.

When Lexa was finally free she retreated to her office and closed the door and blinds, and quickly swallowed another Valium, before collapsing in to her chair and placing her head on the table gingerly. She groaned to herself as she thought about all the planning she needed to do before the trial started and Finn went on the stand. All she really wanted to do was go home and crawl back in to bed and not wake for several hours.

She forced herself to sit up and start her work, because she knew that if she stayed as she was, with her head resting on the table, she was most assuredly going to fall asleep and the last thing she needed was Titus being even angrier with her than he already was. An angry Titus was a scary Titus - something Lexa knew very well from being brought up by the man.

Lexa decided to look through her emails and messages first, and make sure that there were no other meetings she had missed. She listened to Titus’ voicemails and winced at the fury in his voice as he left her the third message. She then read through her emails and responded to the one from Anya regarding her flight in a couple of days which had been pushed back by a few hours.

She then read the message from Clarke, and could not help the smile that spread across her face.

 **12:22 Lexa:** Worse.

 **12:30 Clarke:** Only just woken up? It must be horrific! X

 **12:41 Lexa:** Actually, Clarke, I have been awake for several hours now. I was called in to work and so I am currently going over a new witness’ testimony x

 **12:45 Clarke:** You’re at work?? Omg Lexa, I can’t even move off this couch right now. How in the fuck are you managing to work? X

 **12:59 Lexa:** Well, that’s the thing you see – I’m not managing at all! X

Clarke laughed loudly, before wincing from the pain that it caused. She could not understand how Lexa could be at work right now when she herself couldn’t even get up to use the toilet and so was holding in her pee and had been for at least an hour.

 **13:10 Clarke:** Did you at least have a good time? X

 **15:07 Lexa:** Sorry, was called in to another meeting. No rest for the wicked! And yes thank you, I do believe that I had a good time. Did you? X

 **15:10 Clarke:** Well then you must be The Evil Queen as you never seem to get any rest! X

 **15:11 Clarke:** Yeah I think I had a good time…from what I can remember anyway haha x

 **15:15 Clarke:** It was nice to see you relaxing and letting your hair down. You should do it more often! X

 **15:17 Lexa:** I hope I didn’t do anything to embarrass myself x

 **15:17 Clarke:** No of course not, it was just really nice to see you having fun. You’re a very cute drunk! x

Lexa blushed as she read Clarke’s most recent message. She didn’t remember much about the night before, but she did have vague memories of throwing up in the toilet and Clarke holding her hair back, which was undeniably not cute! And she definitely remembered opening up about Costia. It wasn’t that she regretted it - because she didn’t. She was actually glad she had talked about it to Clarke, but it still felt scary knowing that she allowed herself to open up to a girl she actually didn’t know very well.

 **15:23 Clarke:** So, when are you next in Arcadia? x

 **15:25 Lexa:** I won’t be able to make it in today as there is simply too much work that I need to get done, but I can probably pop in tomorrow.  x

 **15:26 Clarke:** That’s perfect cause I am most definitely not going in to work today. I’m not even leaving the house! But I am working tomorrow, so I’ll see you then x

 **15:30 Lexa:** Okay, I’ll try come in at lunch time x

 **15:31 Clarke:** It’s a date x

Lexa read the message several times, trying and failing to keep calm and not get too excited by the choice of words. A date. Clarke said it was a date. But of course it wasn’t a date, the girl would be at work and be busy and it’s just a term people use these days. Right?

* * *

 

It wasn’t until 3pm that Lexa managed to escape from work the next day and head to Arcadia, where she was hoping Clarke would still be.

As she walked in to the café she was happily greeted by Octavia, who was standing by the cash register and smiling at her.

“Hi Lexa,” she beamed.

“Hello Octavia,” Lexa replied, offering the girl a small smile.

It was still new and strange for Lexa to be greeted so warmly, when a few weeks ago there was no one in the world who would greeted her that way. No one would have been pleased to see her, unless they were a criminal and she had agreed to represent them of course.  

Lexa sat down opposite Octavia and was surprised when the girl handed her a drink before she had even had the chance to order.

“Chai tea right?” Octavia stated. It wasn’t really a question but Lexa still nodded and smiled thankfully. “Clarke mentioned that chai tea is always your choice of drink.”

Lexa blushed ever so slightly at this, and made sure she busied herself with other things so that Octavia wouldn’t see the red glow growing on her cheeks.

“Hey Lexa,” Monty called over to her as he joined Octavia behind the counter.

“Hello Monty,” Lexa replied. The two had talked quite a bit at the party, and she now regretted the way she had snapped at him the day they had met. But that was all in the past and apologising for it now seemed so futile that she didn’t even give it a second thought.

“Did you have fun at the party?” he asked. “Clarke said you were at work yesterday. How did you do that? Everyone was so hungover…it was quite amusing actually!”

“Shut up Monty,” Octavia jokingly snarled at him. “Just because you got high instead of drunk and so had no hangover, doesn’t make you any better than the rest of us!”

“You were high?” Lexa asked incredulously.

Monty shrugged and offered a simple, “Yeah.”

Lexa was shocked. She didn’t know anyone who partook in drug usage and so wasn’t used to people being so blasé about smoking marijuana. Titus was always so strict when it came to drugs and alcohol and with being around the type of people who participated in such things, but Lexa decided that if she was okay with drinking and getting drunk, then why should she judge someone who chose to smoke a little bit of weed? It was none of her business really.

“Lexa!” a voice called happily and Lexa turned her head to see Clarke walking towards her with a bright smile on her face.

“Hi Clarke,” she responded, with an equally bright smile on her face.

They looked at each other, their smiles not wavering. Octavia and Monty shared a smirk and a knowing look, which went completely unnoticed by the two girls who were in their own little world.

“How are you?” Clarke asked sweetly, still not taking her eyes from Lexa’s.

“I’m good,” Lexa answered truthfully. The stress of her job, the headache she had felt growing from working so hard, the worry over Titus asking her why she kept leaving work and spending hours out of the office – they were all washed away as she stared in to the blue abyss of Clarke’s eyes. Clarke had such a calming effect on her, and she would be worried about it but right now she couldn’t care less about what it meant or how it was most likely going to destroy her because all she cared about at that moment was the way the blonde smiled at her and the way her eyes twinkled in the sun light streaming in from the window.

Octavia cleared her throat and the spell was broken. Clarke blinked a few times, trying to clear the fog from her mind. How Lexa managed to entrance her like that was quite scary, and she needed to get a grip of herself before this crush of hers turned in to something a lot more serious and scary.

“You caught me on my break,” she said, forcing herself to calm her breathing down. “It’s such a nice day so I was planning on eating lunch in the park.”

Lexa wasn’t sure if this was an invitation or a simple statement so she just nodded and opted for not saying anything.

“Uhm, you wanna join me?” Clarke asked.

So it was an invitation. Lexa berated herself for the way her heart leapt at this and reminded herself that just because Clarke was bisexual – something she had learned at the party – she would never look twice at Lexa.

“I would love to,” she replied, earning a stunning smile from the blonde which didn’t help Lexa’s already thumping heart.

“Great, let’s go then,” she said as she waved at Octavia and Monty, and headed for the door with her bag slung over her shoulder.

Lexa quickly picked up her own bag, said a quick goodbye to Octavia and Monty who were smiling at her with a glint in their eyes. Lexa worried herself about it for a split second but then Clarke’s hand was on the small of her back, guiding her out of the shop, and any thought of anything but the warmth spreading through her entire body was pushed from her mind.

The two girls walked out in to the sun and towards the park that was only a few minutes’ walk from the café. They mostly walked in silence, with a few comments about the weather and work drifting easily between them.

As they reached a bench that looked out towards the lake and the trees surrounding it, Clarke sat down and opened up her bag, taking out her lunch. Lexa sat down with her and watched as Clarke pulled out a packet of salt and vinegar chips, a large can of monster energy drink, and a blueberry muffin.

“Is that seriously your lunch?” Lexa asked disbelievingly.

“Yeah, why?” Clarke asked through a mouth full of muffin.

“Well, it is hardly a very healthy variety of foods Clarke,” she responded, picking up the monster drink and pointing at the warning level on the back of the can as proof.

Clarke simply shrugged again and took another bite of her blueberry muffin, making a satisfied moan to prove a point.

Lexa laughed loudly at the girl’s antics. She wished she could be as carefree as Clarke was, she wished she could eat whatever she wanted and do whatever she felt like and not spend the rest of the week worrying about the consequences and hating herself for being so weak.

Once again a comfortable silence settled over them as Clarke ate her lunch and Lexa watched the other people in the park. There was a family with a little boy playing by the swings and Lexa watched them, a pang in her chest as she tried but failed to remember a time she ever got to play in the park with her parents or with Titus.

“I love doing that,” Clarke spoke up, breaking Lexa’s inner thoughts.

“Sorry?” she asked, confused as to what Clarke meant.

“Watching people. Raven and I always make up stories about people,” she explained. “Look, that man over there in the suit,” she said pointing to a man sat on a bench who was smoking while talking animatedly on the phone.

“What about him?” Lexa asked, still confused.

Clarke watched the man for a while, studying him and gauging what his story was. “He’s stressed. Not about work though, it’s more personal than that. His marriage is on the rocks and it’s his fault…I think maybe he cheated or he lied about something anyway. So he’s on the phone now trying to sort it.”

Lexa stared at Clarke with a look of disbelief on her face. “How could you possibly know all of that?” she asked.

“Well I don’t _know_ ,” Clarke explained, “but it’s a pretty good guess. I mean, look at him, he’s on his third fag and he’s clearly lost weight recently because his suit is hanging off him slightly, and he’s not stopped playing with his wedding ring ever since his phone rang over 10 minutes ago.”

Again Lexa stared at the girl. Truth be told she was slightly in awe of how Clarke could tell so much from a man that Lexa hadn’t even given a second glance. Sure, Lexa was incredibly good at reading people in certain situations. For example, she noticed when a witness started to breathe faster or when they started to play with their wedding ring while answering a certain type of question, and because she could read people like that she was able to break down witnesses and get the confessions she needed. However, when it came to everyday life, or people in her personal life, she was the worst at reading them.  

“Raven would of course come up with a much more interesting story,” Clarke continued. “She would probably say that the man was on the run from the government after he dug up secretes about an alien invasion!”

Lexa chuckled at this, knowing that Clarke was probably correct. She may not know Raven very well, but that was the exact kind of thing Lexa would imagine her saying if she were sat with them now.

“That explains why she thinks I am a vigilante,” she joked.

“Well yeah exactly,” Clarke laughed. “She enjoys the crazy imaginative stories whereas I like to actually try and get as close to the truth as possible. I’m pretty good at it too. I can usually figure people out you know?”

Lexa nodded and wondered what Clarke had thought of her. She knew of course that Clarke had assumed she was a business woman who worked hard, and that was of course true, but she yearned to know what else the blonde had thought. Whether she had seen how lonely Lexa really was or whether she thought Lexa was a spoilt snob.

“You’re the hardest person to read,” Clarke said quietly, not looking at Lexa.  

Lexa looked up at the girl and shrugged slightly. Clarke knew she shouldn’t have said anything. There was probably a reason why Lexa was so hard to read, why she had so many walls up and it wasn’t Clarke’s place to question it or to try and break those walls down.

“It’s easier,” is all Lexa gave as an answer.

Clarke thought she understood, and it made her chest ache with sympathy for the girl sat beside her. She wished she could tell her that she was wrong, that she should let people in and they won’t hurt her, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t because she didn’t believe it herself. People were mean and hurtful and in some ways life would be easier if Clarke never let anyone in and never let anyone give her the power to hurt her.

“So, do you enjoy being a waitress?” Lexa asked after a few minutes silence.

“I don’t know if enjoy is the right word,” Clarke answered with a slight laugh. “It’s just a way to pay the bills I guess. What about you?”

“Do I enjoy being a waitress?” Lexa joked.

Clarke rolled her eyes but smiled at Lexa, enjoying the joking nature she had adopted. “No, do you enjoy being a lawyer?”

“I do,” Lexa replied honestly. “It was something I always wanted to be, ever since I was a little girl,” she continued. “My uncle Titus is a lawyer too and I guess he did sort of push me in to it, but I do honestly enjoy it.”

“Titus?” Clarke asked. She was sure she recognised the name. After a few seconds she gasped and exclaimed, “Your uncle is Titus? As in Titus Oakley? _The_ Titus?”

Lexa laughed loudly at Clarke’s disbelief. “Yes Titus Oakley is my uncle.”

“Wow!” Clarke breathed out. “No wonder you’re a lawyer. He’s like the most famous and well known lawyer in the country.”

“I am aware of this,” Lexa chuckled.

Lexa looked at the girl and before she realised what she was doing, she started talking again. “He brought me up after my parents died. It was his love for his work that made me interested in pursuing a career in law, but I think even without his pushing I still would have chosen this path for myself.”

There was a moment’s pause before Clarke gingerly placed her hand on Lexa’s thigh and ever so slightly squeezed it in a comforting manner. “I’m really sorry about your parents.”

Lexa smiled sadly and shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t really remember them to be honest. I have vague memories of my mother’s smile and of my father making me laugh, but they are very foggy and sometimes I’m not sure if they are even real memories.”

“There’s probably some reality to the memories,” Clarke responded. “Raven’s dad left when she was only a few months old but she swears she can remember the smell of his cologne.”

“I had no idea about Raven’s dad,” Lexa said. The girl always seemed to be so happy and joyful that it was hard to imagine that she too knew what it felt like to lose a parent.

“There’s a lot about Raven that most people don’t know. Her dad bailed and her mum was always drunk and never took care of her really. She had just about the shittiest upbringing a person can have,” Clarke told Lexa.

Clarke knew that Raven didn’t like talking about her parents, and if she was ever asked about them then she would simply say that she didn’t have any parents and the only family she needed or wanted were Clarke and Octavia. However, she also knew that Raven wasn’t ashamed of her story and she wouldn’t mind Clarke telling Lexa, especially as Clarke was telling her as a way to show the brunette that she was not alone in the world and there were people who understood what she had been through and people she could talk to.

“That’s really terrible,” Lexa whispered sadly. “I guess everyone has a past they would rather not talk about.”

Clarke watched Lexa and noticed how sad she looked at that moment and she ached with the need to comfort her and make all that pain go away.

“Yeah I guess, but the good thing is that Raven has me and Octavia and she can always talk to us and we are always there for her. Just like she is always there for us,” Clarke said, hoping Lexa understood what she was saying.

Lexa smiled slightly at Clarke’s words. She knew what the blonde was saying, and while the thought of opening up and talking to someone about her life was scary to say the least, it also made her chest feel lighter and she wondered for a fleeting moment if maybe Clarke was going to be the thing that saved her. From her past, from her worries and her fears, her insecurities and most importantly from herself.

Clarke had finished eating her lunch and so she pulled out her sketch book from her bag and started to draw the trees ahead of them. She had drawn the views she saw in this park a million times though and soon she was bored. She needed something new to sketch, something beautiful to inspire her and get her creative juices flowing once again.

Lexa was sipping on a bottle of water and contently watching life go by her. Her thoughts were drifting towards the memories she had told Clarke about and found herself once again wondering if the beautiful green eyes filled with love were really her mothers and if the deep chortling she heard in her dreams really had once come from her father. She was so deep in her thoughts that she never noticed Clarke pulling out a book and starting to draw, and she definitely didn’t pick up on the fact that Clarke kept looking at her then down at her book every few minutes.

It wasn’t until Lexa turned to ask Clarke a question that she noticed the almost complete pencil drawn sketch on the notepad that she realised what was happening.

“Are you drawing me?” she asked, surprised.

“Oh uhm yeah,” Clarke went to close the notepad, “Sorry, I should have asked permission.”

Lexa held her hand out, stopping Clarke from hiding the drawing away. She silently asked if she could take it and when Clarke handed it over, Lexa took it with a smile and looked down at the picture of herself.

She looked incredible. Far too beautiful for it to really be her, and yet it was her. The her that Clarke saw anyway, and with that realisation Lexa felt tears prickle her eyes and a lump form at her throat.

“Lexa I’m sorry, I really should have asked first,” Clarke mumbled.

Lexa looked up, blinking back the tears, and smiled as she shook her head at the blonde. “No, it’s okay. Really.”

Clarke smiled at her, relief flooding her face.

“You should paint the trees or the lake or something though, I mean the scenery is very beautiful and a lot more interesting,” Lexa said, still amazed at how she looked on the paper.

“You’re a lot more beautiful than the trees Lexa,” Clarke stated matter of factly.

There was no way Lexa could have hidden the blush that spread across her face and down her neck this time and so she simply smiled shyly back at Clarke before moving her eyes back to the notepad.

She flicked through the notepad and looked at all the drawings the blonde had created. There were charcoal drawings of both Octavia and Raven, several paintings of the very park they were in, and many drawings of every type – paintings, pencil sketches, charcoal drawings – of a handsome man with kind blue eyes and a wide smile that held an incredible resemblance to Clarke’s.

It was several minutes before Lexa had examined each and every piece of work in the notepad and by the time she had reached the page she had left on at, the page with a portrait of herself looking back at her, she was blown away at how extraordinarily gifted Clarke was.

She looked down at the drawing of herself one more time before handing it back to Clarke. “You are incredibly talented.”

Clarke smiled at the compliment. “Thank you,” she said as she closed the notepad and stored it back in her bag.

“You should pursue it Clarke,” Lexa said with earnest.

“I kinda am,” Clarke responded. “I was at college studying medicine but after less than a year I realised it wasn’t what I wanted and so I dropped out. My mum wasn’t too pleased but she’s kind of okay with it now. I’m not a professional or anything but it is my dream to become one and that’s why I’m working at Arcadia now. It’s a way to pay the bills while I can focus on my art. Only problem is that I haven’t found anyone who’s actually interested in my work or thinks I’m good enough to be in their galleries or art shows.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Lexa frowned. How could anyone think that Clarke was not good enough? They must all be blind. “Seriously Clarke, you are incredibly talented and I promise you that one day someone of importance is going to realise that and you’re dream will come true.”

Clarke sighed. She wished Lexa was right, and a few months ago Clarke would have believed her. But it had been years and years since she started showcasing her work and trying to get people to be interested enough to hang her pieces in their galleries and not one single fish had taken a bite.

“Thanks Lexa,” she said, trying not to let her disbelief show.

Lexa sensed that Clarke wasn’t in the mood for a pep talk, and so she changed the subject. “So what made you go in to medicine in the first place?”

“My mum. She’s a doctor and she always wanted me to follow in her footsteps. I always said no, even when I was a kid, cause I’ve always wanted to be an artist. My dad…he really believed in me. He said I should pursue my dreams and my ambitions and not do something just because it was what someone else wanted, even if that someone was his wife and my mother.”

“Your dad sounds like a really nice man, you’re very lucky,” Lexa said honestly.

Clarke smiled at Lexa’s words and she wondered what her father would think of the brunette sat next to her now. He had always been a believer in kindness and not judging people, and he had instilled in her the importance of offering people friendship – especially those who seemed to have no one. Just like Lexa. She hoped that he would like her. She was sure he would.

“Yeah, he was the greatest man I ever knew,” Clarke spoke quietly. “He died when I was 13, and my whole life kind of just fell apart, like the rug had been pulled from under me. My mother and I moved to DC and I stopped drawing.”

Lexa listened intently as Clarke spoke. She knew how hard it was to talk of loved ones you lost, and so she decided to stay quiet and let Clarke talk as much or as little as she wanted, and to talk at her own pace – the worst thing Lexa could do was push Clarke.

“I just couldn’t find it in me to draw or paint or anything. My dad was my best friend and my number one fan, and without him I just couldn’t imagine putting my pencil to paper. So by the time college came around I decided to do medicine cause I knew I was good at it. But then I realised how much it was depressing me to work so hard for something I didn’t have a passion for, and with some sound advice from Raven, I decided to drop out.”

“I think your dad would be proud of you Clarke,” Lexa said quietly as she placed her hand comfortingly on Clarke’s leg.

“I think so too,” Clarke forced back the tears threatening to fall down her cheeks. “My mum wasn’t happy but she gets it and she supports me as best she can. She was so angry with me at first but I think she realised why I quit and she knew she couldn’t really be angry and so she tries to be okay with it, but every now and then there’s a big argument and things turn a bit ugly.”

Clarke laughed humourlessly and wiped away a stray tear that had managed to fall.

“Sorry,” she mumbled, “I’m ruining our date by crying!”

Lexa’s eyes went wide at the word date, but she tried to not focus on the blonde’s choice of words. It wasn’t the time – she would freak out over it later!

“Oh not that it’s like a date or anything, I mean…I meant like a lunch date. A friend date. A lunch date with a friend eating lunch on a friend date,” Clarke rambled on, the tips of her ears turning bright red.

Lexa giggled and patted Clarke on the leg, “Don’t give yourself an aneurysm Clarke, it’s okay I get what you’re saying.”

Clarke looked at Lexa’s face and saw a glint in her eyes and a playful smirk on her lips, and suddenly she was laughing loudly and freely, with Lexa soon following suit.

They sat and laughed and talked on the bench for another half an hour before Clarke realised the time.

“Oh fuck!” she exclaimed loudly, causing Lexa to stop mid-sentence and give Clarke a worried look. “Shit! I’ve massively gone over my lunch break. I should have been back at Arcadia over 20 minutes ago.”

“Oh. Okay well you should get going then,” Lexa felt the disappointment wash over her as she realised that this meant their lunch _date_ was over.

Clarke jumped to her feet and collected all of her belongings, throwing them hastily in to her bag. She was going to walk off but something made her stop and turn to look back at Lexa. Without thinking about it she reached forward and enveloped her in a hug. It was nothing more than a quick squeeze and a whispered goodbye before Clarke smiled brightly and briskly walked away and back to work.

It had felt nothing like the hug they had shared at the party – it was hardly a warm embrace or a loving hold, yet it still left Lexa feeling giddy and frankly quite scared. She watched the blonde walk away for much longer than necessary before shaking her head and heading back to work as well.

* * *

 

Weeks passed and the two girls fell in to a sort of routine. They messaged every day, and Lexa went to the café at least 3 times a week; sometimes she would sit in the café with a tea while Clarke worked and Lexa would get some paper work done and they would talk to each other whenever the blonde got the chance to sit down, and other times the two would go out for lunch together. They often went back to the park and sat on the same bench as they ate their two strikingly different lunches. Sometimes they would venture in to town and choose a restaurant to eat at, and other times they would simply walk around the town and around the park and ate as they walked and talked.

One day Clarke had persuaded Lexa to go with her to an ice cream shop near the park. Lexa never ate ice cream and she told this to Clarke, but the blonde simply rolled her eyes and said “ _Live a little Lexa!”_ It was with an immense amount of huffing and sighing that Lexa had followed Clarke in to the ice cream shop. Clarke had even managed to convince her to buy a caramel fudge flavoured ice cream after the blonde had insisted again and again that it was by the far the most delicious thing Lexa would ever taste. She had not been wrong…not that Lexa ever admitted it!

It was on a Thursday afternoon, while Clarke and Lexa were walking around the lake in the park with an ice cold drink each, that Clarke asked Lexa, “Hey are you busy tomorrow tonight?”

Lexa thought about all the work she needed to get done before the weekend and answered, “No not at all. Why?”

“Well Lincoln, Octavia, me, and Raven were supposed to be going to the movies but Raven can’t make it,” Clarke started to explain. “She’s got to do some over time at work. So there’s a spare ticket available.”

Lexa waited for Clarke to elaborate.

“Uhm so I was wondering if maybe you wanted to come?” she asked quickly.

“With you and Lincoln and Octavia?” she asked, just to make sure she was understanding correctly.

“Yeah, I mean only if you want to,” Clarke said unsurely. 

“I would love to,” Lexa enjoyed the smile that played across Clarke’s face as she accepted the invitation and she vowed to make the girl smile like that at least once a day for however long they remained in each other’s lives.

“Awesome,” Clarke said happily. “The movie is at 6:45 so meet us at mine for about 6 okay?”

“No problem,” Lexa replied, a wide smile spreading across her face too. She hadn’t been to the movies in such a long time. She had barely been anywhere with anyone since Costia had died, and so it felt new and exciting for her to be invited to go somewhere with a bunch of friends.

At 5:55 the following evening Lexa was walking up to Clarke’s front door once again, and this time she was no less nervous. She had once again been in crisis mode in regards of what to wear, but she had thankfully refrained from calling Gustus for his advice.

 _It’s not a date. It’s not a date. It’s not a date._ She repeated the mantra to herself over and over again as she knocked on the door and waited for a reply.

It wasn’t a date. It was simply a group of friends going to the movies together.

Well, an engaged couple and Clarke and Lexa.

Still. It wasn’t a date!

The door opened, snapping Lexa from her nervous debate with herself, and she saw a smiling Lincoln on the other side.

“Hey Alexandria,” he greeted happily. “Good to see you again.”

“Hello Lincoln,” she greeted back as she entered the apartment.

She didn’t know Lincoln very well as he had spent most of the party stuck to Octavia’s side and hadn’t talked much as part of the group. However, she liked that he addressed her as Alexandria, and he somehow seemed to have a calming effect on her.

“O and Clarke are still getting ready,” he explained their absence. “You want a drink?”

“Just a water please,” Lexa replied politely, sitting down on a stool in the kitchen.

Lincoln poured her a glass of ice water and popped a few ice cubes in before handing it over to Lexa.

“Thank you,” she said and took a long refreshing sip.

Lincoln grabbed himself a beer and took a sip as he sat down next to Lexa. She opened her mouth, ready to start some small talk with the man, when she heard shouting from the room opposite. Her eyes went wide as she recognised Clarke’s voice shouting loudly and Octavia’s voice screaming back just as loud.

“Oh don’t worry about them,” Lincoln chuckled. “They’re always like this. Truthfully they’re more like sisters than they are friends, and so you are guaranteed to catch them shouting and screaming at each other at least once a week.”

The man laughed quietly and shook his head playfully.

“Clarke for Christ sake just shut up!” Octavia’s voice rang out clearly.

Lexa and Lincoln turned their heads to see the two girls leaving the room and entering the kitchen.

“Oh hey Lexa,” Octavia greeted before turning back to Clarke, hands on her hips and a defiant look on her face.

“Octavia take them off! Take them off right now,” Clarke shouted at her friend, not noticing that Lexa was watching.

“No!” Octavia stood her ground. “I bought these shoes last summer. They are mine, and I am wearing them!”

“Fuck off! I bought them two summers ago,” Clarke argued. “They are mine. Take them off!”

The two continued to argue for several minutes with Lexa and Lincoln as their amused and slightly fearful audience.

“Screw this, I’m calling Raven!” Octavia stated after realising their shouting back and forth was clearly not working.

“Brilliant idea,” Clarke nodded and she whipped her phone out.

Raven picked up after the fifth ring. “Hey Griff, what’s up?”

Octavia snatched the phone from Clarke and put it on loudspeaker. “Raven, it’s Octavia.”

“Oh okay, what’s up O?” Raven asked, clearly confused.

“You know my brown leather boots?” Octavia asked in a rush.

“Uhm the ones with the black heel?” Raven replied, even more confused.

“Yeah those ones. Okay, so did we or did we not see them at that shop in Maryland last summer?”

“Uhm,” Raven pondered as Octavia and Clarke impatiently waited. “Yeah we did. I vividly remember saying you wanted to wear them while riding Lincoln’s dick!”

Lexa choked on her water at Raven’s words. Octavia, however, looked smugly at Clarke while she thanked Raven and hung up the phone.

“Told ya!” she sing songed, booping Clarke on the nose playfully and skipping towards Lincoln who was chuckling happily.

Clarke huffed angrily and Lexa watched her with great amusement. There was something incredibly endearing about Clarke muttering to herself as her nose scrunched up and her mouth curled in to a slight pout.

She decided to go over to the annoyed girl and at least try and cheer her up.

“Hey,” she quietly greeted.

Clarke snapped her head up and her eyes met with Lexa’s instantly. “Oh my God, I had no idea you were here!”

Lexa laughed “Yeah I figured as much. That was quite entertaining to watch though, so thank you!”

A slight blush painted Clarke’s cheeks but she smiled nonetheless. “Yeah, that’s just how me and O are.”

“Lincoln informed me of that,” Lexa met Clarke’s eyes deliberately. “I think you should wear those black boots you wore that day we went to Polis for lunch the other week. They were really sexy.”

A wide smile slowly crept on to Clarke’s face at Lexa’s words, and she nodded happily before turning back to her room to grab said shoes.

_Two smiles in one day – not bad!_

At 6:30 the four of them were rushing out of the apartment and bickering about whose fault it was that they were running late. Lexa knew logically that it was Clarke’s, but she refused to gang up on her and so was more than happy to join Clarke and blame Lincoln – even though the man had been ready since before Lexa had even arrived.

When they finally arrived at the movies, Clarke and Lincoln headed straight for the counter.

“We’ve already got the tickets,” Lexa shouted to a retreating Clarke.

Octavia laughed beside her. She reached her arm over Lexa’s shoulder and whispered dramatically “Oh honey you have so much to learn about Clarke!”

Lexa was left confused as Octavia walked off and joined the other two at the counter. It wasn’t until she was beside the group of friends that she realised what they were actually at the counter for.

“And can I get a large Pepsi with that and a bottled water please,” Lexa caught the last of Lincoln’s order.

“You’re getting food?” Lexa asked Clarke as though it weren’t glaringly obvious. “Do you really need anything? You’ve just had pizza!”

“Like I said, you’ve got a lot to learn. Lesson One,” Octavia looked at Lexa with faux seriousness. “Never ever get in the way of our girl and her food.”

Clarke rolled her eyes but didn’t deny anything. Instead, she looked at Lexa and asked, “Want anything?”

Lexa almost insitinctivly said no as she was so used to turning down unhealthy foods.But there was something about being here with Clarke and her friends, and the way Clarke was looking at her expectantly, that made Lexa change her mind on the spot.

“Yes, but I’m buying,” she stated.

“You don’t have to,” Clarke was taken aback. She had never meant that Lexa should buy her any food.

“I got the movie ticket for free, so the least I could do is get you some food,” Clarke pondered on this before finally shrugging and gesturing Lexa to continue.

“Okay, so what are you having?” she asked after a seconds beat, realising she didn’t actually know what to order.

“Well I wanted tacos but they’re out,” Clarke growled angrily. “So a large popcorn. Please and thank you,” she added on quickly, her tone changing completely.

Lexa smiled slightly and turned to order.

“Sweet or salted?” the man behind the counter asked.

“Uhm salted please,” Lexa replied without thinking too much of it.

“Noo!!” Clarke complained loudly. “Sorry I just really don’t like salted popcorn.”

Lexa hated sweet popcorn. Clarke was pouting at her. She despised sweet popcorn. Clarke was giving her big puppy dog eyes. Lexa was disgusted by sweet popcorn. Clarke was holding Lexa’s hand and brushing her thumb over the back of her hand.

“Sweet!” Lexa blarted loudly, her eyes still focused on where Clarke’s thumb was making small circles on her hand. “Uhm sorry, can I have sweet popcorn instead of salted please,” she recovered and smiled tightly at the man.

Octavia coughed loudly from behind them, and Clarke turned to glare at her friend. Lexa hadn’t realised, but Octavia had in fact been calling her whipped, and while it sort of made Clarke feel excited to note that someone other than herself was thinking along the same lines as she was, she didn’t want her friend scaring away Lexa with her teasing.

“Drinks? Yes please,” Lexa continued her order. “I will get a bottled water and a…” she waited for Clarke to let her know what she wanted.

“A slushie please,” Clarke quickly piped up.

“And a slushie please,” Lexa reiterated Clarke’s order.

Lexa paid for her order and handed Clarke the popcorn and the slushie, and they all headed to watch their film.

“So what is the film about?” Lexa asked as they walked in to the viewing room. “I know it’s called 10 Cloverfield Lane but I haven’t heard anything about it.”

“It’s a horror,” Lincoln answered excitedly and Octavia grinned happily at her, nodding her head enthusiastically.

“Oh,” Lexa slowed her walking and debated how weird it would be if she simply ran out of the movie theatre right then.

“What’s up?” Clarke asked, noticing instantly that something was wrong. “Do you not like horrors?”

“Well…not exactly,” which was a massive understatement. She had never in her life been able to sit through more than 20 minutes of a horror movie. Costia had always made fun of her for it.

“It’s okay Lexa,” Clarke reassured her. “If it gets too much I can hold your hand,” she teased.

Lexa blushed slightly and wondered if maybe she would actually enjoy watching a scary film for once.  

“No seriously Lex, if you feel you can’t handle it then let me know and we’ll go,” Clarke said earnestly.

“Thank you,” Lexa breathed out. “I’m sure I’ll be okay if you’re there to protect me!”

 Clarke grinned toothily as they all made their way to their seats and got ready for the movie to start. They were a few minutes late and so all of the adverts had already played and the opening credits for the film were on the screen.

10 minutes in and Lexa was regretting her decision to watch this horrible film. Nothing exceptionally scary had happened, apart from a girl being in a car crash and waking up in a weird bunker type room. It wasn’t so much that anything had happened, but the knowledge that horrible and weird things were going to take place soon, which had Lexa on edge.

She managed to make it half way through the film before she screamed and jumped slightly in her seat.

Clarke was keeping an eye on Lexa, making sure that she wasn’t freaking out too much or having any kind of panic attack from the film. When she heard the girl scream and saw her jump from her seat, Clarke’s hand instinctively went out in search of Lexa’s.

Lexa felt a hand grab on to hers. She looked across and saw Clarke giving her a reassuring smile and she grabbed on to her hand even tighter.

The two girls spent the rest of the movie holding each other’s hands, even when there were no scary scenes on the screen on front of them. It made eating their popcorn rather difficult and so after a few minutes Clarke reached over and passed the bucket to Lincoln – who took it eagerly and asked no questions.

Clarke was now rubbing her thumb over Lexa’s hand in small circular motions. She worried she had pushed her luck and crossed a line when Lexa loosened her grip on and started to pull her hand away from Clarke’s. Just as she was about to whine at the loss of contact, she felt Lexa intertwine their fingers so that they were no longer holding hands, but they were gently caressing each other’s fingers.

Lexa’s heart was beating a mile a minute as she changed the position of their hands. Clarke had held her hand because she knew Lexa had been afraid. The thumb rubbing circles on the back of her hand was just for comfort. Or was it? Lexa couldn’t be 100% sure and so she had taken a chance and entwined their fingers together. The response she got from the blonde made her heart soar.

It wasn’t until the credits started rolling, signifying the end of the film, and the lights started to come back one, that Clarke and Lexa released the other’s hand. Clarke realised that she hadn’t paid any attention to the film whatsoever. Part of her was upset by this as she had been looking forward to watching it for months, but for the most part she couldn’t care less because if holding Lexa’s hand for over an hour meant she had to miss out on a movie, then she was more than happy to do so.

After the movie, the four friends went for a drink at a bar nearby – it was a tradition of theirs according to Octavia

“We always go for a drink so that Clarke can rant about the movie and explain all the hidden messages that the rest of us are too stupid to pick up on,” Lincoln explained to Lexa.

“Those are your words not mine!” Clarke held her hands up in defiance.  

It was true that Clarke usually enjoyed going over the film several times after watching it, and ranting to her friends about all the details she noticed and explaining why a certain shot angle was used or why they chose to end the film in the way they did. However, tonight she didn’t care. Even if she wanted to rant and rave, she wouldn’t have been able to considering she had no idea what had even happened in the film as her mind had been somewhere else entirely.

“You’re being unusually quiet,” Of course Octavia noticed and had to comment on it.

Clarke took a swig of her beer and shrugged nonchalantly, not wanting to divulge the reasons as to why she was keeping so quiet this time. She looked across their table and eyed Lexa, who was listening to Lincoln talk to her about his favourite scene from the movie (the part with the aliens obviously). The girl was wearing her hair down with slight curls falling down past her shoulders, and her face looked so relaxed and peaceful as she listened to Lincoln talking.

Lexa could feel eyes on her and so she turned her head and caught Clarke staring at her with a soft smile on her beautiful face. She watched as a red tinge painted her cheeks and she quickly averted her eyes elsewhere. Lexa silently chuckled and she felt her stomach flip as the realisation that Clarke had been staring at her lovingly sunk in.

She realised too late that was now the one staring at Clarke, when the blonde turned her eyes back to her and their gaze locked. Lexa felt her own cheeks growing warm and she was about to snap her eyes and attention back to Lincoln, but the look on Clarke’s face and the small smiling creeping on to her lips was enough to keeps Lexa looking adoringly at her.

“Seriously Clarke, you don’t have anything to say about Lincoln’s take on why Michelle chose to go to Houston instead of escaping North of Baton Rouge?” Octavia asked Clarke incredulously.

Clarke started, turning to look at her friend and stammered, “Huh? I uhm yeah I think he’s right for sure.”

Octavia and Lincoln stared at Clarke with their mouths agape.

“You agree with me about her wanting to help because she’s a woman and all women think they are the best person for the job even though they can’t do anything right?” Lincoln queried.  “Because you do know that I was totally kidding just to get a rise out of one of you?”

“Huh? Oh, no I didn’t mean I agree. I just…” she trailed off before sighing and admitting regrettably, “Okay truth is I didn’t pay much attention to the movie.”

“What?” Octavia gasped. “You begged us to come and watch it with you!”

“I know and I’m sorry. I…I’m just really tired okay O?” she pleaded for the girl to just drop it.

“You’re tired?” Octavia laughed loudly. “Clarke you woke up at 2pm today!”

Lexa snorted loudly, and quickly covered her mouth in embarrassment as everyone looked at her in surprise. “Sorry,” she blushed darkly. “It’s simply so amusing to me that you can sleep in so late!” she explained.

Lincoln and Octavia joined in with Lexa’s laughing, while Clarke rolled her eyes and huffed stubbornly. “I bet you get up at the crack of dawn every morning,” she threw at Lexa.

“I wouldn’t say the crack of dawn exactly, but I do set my alarm for 5:30 each morning,” Lexa replied calmly.

“5:30?!” Clarke groaned at the thought of ever being awake so early. “That’s not right!”

Lexa chuckled, “Well some of us have busy lives. Why waste precious hours of the day when there is so much to get done?” she asked seriously.

Clarke chortled at this, and for a second Lexa was taken back to her high school years where she was always made fun of for her strict routine and her hard work. However, as she looked at Clarke and saw the playful glint in her eyes, she realised the girl wasn’t making fun of her at all, but was being playful with her. Almost flirtingly playful.

With this thought in her mind she playfully stuck her tongue out at the blonde and grinned happily at the laugh it emitted from the girl.

Octavia watched the two of them and smiled knowingly to herself. 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed. 
> 
> If so please leave a comment as they feed me. If not then please leave a comment saying why (but nicely as I am a fragile bean!)


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